Veit hired to demo CVS

The vacant and deteriorated former Midway CVS at University and Snelling avenues will come down soon. City officials have hired Veit to demolish the structure.
As of Monitor deadline, required city demolition permits hadn’t been obtained. The site is already fenced, but additional measures must be taken before utilities are disconnected and the building comes down.
The City Council in November ordered that the building be demolished within 15 days, with no chance for repair. A response wasn’t received so demolition must go ahead. Costs of demolition in such cases where the city issues contracts are assessed back to the property owner.
Last-minute pleas from CVS and the Washington State-based building owner’s representatives were scoffed at by neighbors and elected officials in November.
Ward Four Council Member Molly Coleman said there is “no doubt” that the shuttered store is a nuisance property. She led calls for demolition, citing hundreds of police calls as well as drug use, loitering, trash dumping and other problems.
CVS, which has a lease on the property through 2031, asked the council to delay action for 120 days. That was seen as providing time for rehabilitation and finding a new tenant.
The property is owned by a Washington state-based limited liability corporation.
Demolition will end a three-year fight over the property’s fate. The store closed for good in 2022 after closing in 2020 due to damage sustained during civil unrest.
The Midway location is one of two former CVS stores city officials are contending with. A closed CVS at Maryland Avenue and Arcade Street was before the City Council Jan. 7. A 15-day remove or repair order recommended by Legislative Hearing Officer Marcia Moermond was countered by the property owner and CVS, who wanted 120 days to plan demolition and clearing of the site for a new business.
The council voted to give until March 1 for the shuttered store to come down. The property is fenced and in the past month, maintenance was stepped up.
Of demolition, “It’s a question of when not a question of if,” said Moermond.
CVS, which closed that store two years ago, was involved with a 2030 lease in place. The lease was terminated Jan. 7. CVS sought more time to finalize a number of legal agreements on demolition with the owner, a California-based trust.
Council members discussed the difference between the two cases. Ward Seven Council Member Nelsie Yang said a key difference is that there is a redevelopment plan for Maryland and Arcade.
Coleman supported Yang but told the CVS representative Jan. 7 that she is “immensely frustrated” that she has heard two CVS nuisance property cases in just four months on the City Council.