Rite Aid site near Italian Market will be redeveloped into condos and townhouses
The pharmacy's parking lot is beloved by Angelo's customers, who use it as a dining hall.
As terminally bankrupt Rite Aid shutters hundreds of stores across the country, what will happen to all those properties?
The fate of one soon-to-be former Rite Aid in Philadelphia is clear. The store at 801 S. Ninth St., north of the Italian Market, will be demolished and replaced with condos and townhouses. There will be no retail space.
“This is not a climate to support any meaningful commercial,” said Ori Feibush, the Philadelphia-based developer who owns the property. “I suspect the larger community would likely prefer commercial, but the more proximate neighbors would rather have residential and folks with roots here.”
Feibush proposes nine single-family homes on Darien Street on the east side of the site, with two parking spaces apiece. On the west side facing Ninth Street, he wants to build a 16-unit condo building, with one parking space per unit. All the parking will be below-grade, in a bid to keep the streetscape active.
The parking of Feibush’s Rite Aid is currently used by customers of Angelo’s, the wildly popular pizzeria and sandwich shop a block to the north. The restaurant has no indoor seating, and customers often devour their purchases on the hoods or trunks of their vehicles in the pharmacy’s conveniently located parking lot.
That tradition will go away in the long term, Feibush says — he expects the zoning process to take a year — but in the short term, “I’m not policing the parking lot.”
The project is zoned for commercial use so he will need a variance from the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment to move ahead with his residential plans.
Feibush purchased two other Rite Aids in 2020, one of which he sold. The other, at 1201-43 W. Girard Ave., has been redeveloped into housing.
Chain pharmacies are often located near dense population centers and at intersections with traffic lights where customers are likely to stop. That makes them prime targets for residential redevelopment or a new commercial use, most often as a dollar store or small grocery.
But in today’s uncertain economic environment, residential development is also struggling, so analysts say more former Rite Aid storefronts can be expected to remain empty longer. At the same time, many retailers are facing challenges from President Donald Trump’s looming tariffs, and consumer sentiment has plummeted.
Grocery and dollar store chains “still seem to have big appetites for new stores, but this may be a test of how the impending tariffs are affecting their expansion plans,” said Steven H. Gartner of real estate services firm CBRE.
Gartner says the big question on many consumers’ minds will be whether former Rite Aids will be replaced by other pharmacies.
“I think that is unlikely, but not out of the question,” Gartner said. “Both CVS and Walgreens are also in contraction mode themselves.”