Plans for a 14,692 square-foot Walgreens have been filed with the city of Emporia.
The store would be a new stand-alone building located at 15th Avenue and Industrial Road in the southwest corner of the Flinthills Mall parking lot. Martin Peres, the city’s chief of code services, said the plans would be reviewed by the city zoning authorities and the engineering office.
No formal application has been made yet, Peres said, so detailed information is limited.
“I can’t even tell you who the general contractor is going to be yet,” Peres said.
The store is listed as Walgreens No. 1167. According to the company, Walgreens has 5,475 stores nationwide including 50 in Kansas.
Rumors about Walgreens’ interest in Emporia have circulated for a couple of years. At one point in 2005, when the city was approached by a go-between about the possible sale of Fire Station No. 2, it was rumored that Walgreens was the company at the other end. The city did not accept any offers and then-City Manager Steve Commons said that while he had heard the Walgreens name mentioned, he didn’t know for sure that the company was involved.
A call to Walgreens’ media relations office was not returned by deadline.
Walgreens has been in Emporia before, opening a store in 1972. It closed following the 1974 tornado and did not reopen, according to the Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce.