Patrick
07-13-2005, 10:50 AM
Draper's Grocery store is vacating the Shartel Shopping center, after serving that area for many years. Draper's was a smaller local grocery store.
They ran a successful business there, but CVS has purchased the shopping center space.
IMO, this is the time that the city needs to get on the band wagon and try to lure them downtown. Simply have a relocation event for Draper's!
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"Draper's grocery store to close to make room for drug store
Large paper signs on the windows alert shoppers at Draper's grocery store, 715 NW 50, that the Oklahoma City store is closing and all items are discounted 20 percent.
The emptying shelves inside the grocery store tell the rest of the story.
"The neighborhood is going to miss us," said Don Draper, son of owners Tom and Gayle Draper.
Draper's is closing to make room for a larger CVS drug store. Currently, CVS occupies a corner spot in Shartel Plaza, next door to the grocery store.
Mike DeAngelis, spokesman for Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS, said construction on the drug store will start by the year's end with a projected opening in mid-2006.
Greg Downs, one of the principals of the previous owner Shartel Associates LLC and the management company PRO Realty, said his group sold about 60,000 square feet of the plaza to CVS in June.
County tax records show $1.5 million was paid for CVS' portion of the property, and city building permits show an estimated construction cost of $45,000.
When the drug company starts construction, Shartel Associates will start work on redesigning the entire center, Downs said.
An additional tenant, Oklahoma Natural Gas, left the plaza in June, ONG communications manager Don Sherry said. The payment office will not be replaced. Its four employees have been transferred within the company.
"The vast majority of customers use other means of paying their bills, whether it be by mail or online. We also have a number of authorized pay agents in commercial locations, whether banks or grocery stores, and recently a couple of our business partners have started operating kiosks in grocery stores that will accept cash and provide a receipt," he said.
Other tenants Adobe Grill and Shartel Cleaners are expected to remain in the center, Downs said.
The Drapers have operated the grocery on NW 50 since 1994.
Draper said the store must be out of the space by the end of the month, he said.
A second Draper's at NW 63 and McArthur Boulevard will remain open, he said, but the owners have no intentions of reopening a grocery in the Shartel area. Gayle Draper said the store is down to less than a handful of employees, who will have to find other jobs. "
They ran a successful business there, but CVS has purchased the shopping center space.
IMO, this is the time that the city needs to get on the band wagon and try to lure them downtown. Simply have a relocation event for Draper's!
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"Draper's grocery store to close to make room for drug store
Large paper signs on the windows alert shoppers at Draper's grocery store, 715 NW 50, that the Oklahoma City store is closing and all items are discounted 20 percent.
The emptying shelves inside the grocery store tell the rest of the story.
"The neighborhood is going to miss us," said Don Draper, son of owners Tom and Gayle Draper.
Draper's is closing to make room for a larger CVS drug store. Currently, CVS occupies a corner spot in Shartel Plaza, next door to the grocery store.
Mike DeAngelis, spokesman for Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS, said construction on the drug store will start by the year's end with a projected opening in mid-2006.
Greg Downs, one of the principals of the previous owner Shartel Associates LLC and the management company PRO Realty, said his group sold about 60,000 square feet of the plaza to CVS in June.
County tax records show $1.5 million was paid for CVS' portion of the property, and city building permits show an estimated construction cost of $45,000.
When the drug company starts construction, Shartel Associates will start work on redesigning the entire center, Downs said.
An additional tenant, Oklahoma Natural Gas, left the plaza in June, ONG communications manager Don Sherry said. The payment office will not be replaced. Its four employees have been transferred within the company.
"The vast majority of customers use other means of paying their bills, whether it be by mail or online. We also have a number of authorized pay agents in commercial locations, whether banks or grocery stores, and recently a couple of our business partners have started operating kiosks in grocery stores that will accept cash and provide a receipt," he said.
Other tenants Adobe Grill and Shartel Cleaners are expected to remain in the center, Downs said.
The Drapers have operated the grocery on NW 50 since 1994.
Draper said the store must be out of the space by the end of the month, he said.
A second Draper's at NW 63 and McArthur Boulevard will remain open, he said, but the owners have no intentions of reopening a grocery in the Shartel area. Gayle Draper said the store is down to less than a handful of employees, who will have to find other jobs. "