An opening and a closing... well sort of.

Let's talk about the good news first!

Walgreen's will be opening their brand new location on the corner of Arrowhead Road and Kenwood Road on August 17th. Now if you live in the Kenwood area no need to fear, you will not go Walgreen's less for a while. It's going to be a seamless transition. The Kenwood Plaza store will close one night and the new store will open the next morning. Leave it to the mass of workers to move all the product from the current store into the new store in the middle of the night. Some of you may be thinking "There's a Walgreen's in Kenwood already?" In fact there is! Last year Walgreen's acquired a few Falk's Pharmacy locations and the only location they set up shop in was the Kenwood location. The reason for it was because it really was their only way to edge into the neighborhood. Walgreen's has been trying (and fighting) for a few years now to open a new location in the Kenwood area. They originally were planning on constructing a store on the opposite corner of the intersection (across from the Holiday station) from where their new store is, but the neighborhood objected it due to a needed vacation of an alleyway. It's been a long process, but I think we all can agree that Walgreen's constructed a very nice store, something that really benefits the Kenwood community. Not to mention it's one of their first modern prototypes that I've seen! Score for Kenwood and Duluth! You'll have to make sure to check out the new Walgreen's Kenwood when it open's officially for business on August 17th.

Now for the closing... well sort of closing.

The flood did some damage to the Duluth area which is pretty obvious. But apparently to one business, it did a little too much damage to recover from. At least that's what it looks like to the average person. Verizon Wireless closed their location on Maple Grove Road due to damage from the flood. The nearest location now is within the Miller Hill Mall or down Central Entrance a bit next to McDonald's. This closing has me a little skeptical though. Why you ask? Well if you remember the post a while back about the new retail center that will be replacing the Ground Round restaurant, you'll remember that Verizon Wireless is a new tenant for the center. So it makes me wonder if the closing really is due to flood damages (which there clearly are some), or if it is more so due to the fact that there is no need to spend the money on renovating their current space when they will be moving soon? The other thing it makes me wonder is if their current building will now somehow be incorporated into the Hansen Center site being it is so damaged from the flood. I'll keep my eyes and ears open and keep you guys posted.

[polldaddy poll=6449410]