business

A big-name pharmacy will open in Dinkytown in August, the college neighborhood's first drugstore in more than a decade.

While mom-and-pop shops outnumber brand-name stores in Dinkytown, some of the area's longtime business owners say the new CVS could help restore the area's former glory.

"Dinkytown used to be, really, a self-sufficient village," said Kristen Eide-Tollefson, who has owned the Book House for 33 years. "But without a pharmacy or a drugstore, we really had a gap."

That hole will close Aug. 22, when CVS opens in time for fall classes at the University of Minnesota. The new location, at 4th Street and 15th Avenue SE., sits near the edge of the U's East Bank.

Generations of Golden Gophers have shaped Dinkytown, where 20-somethings still line up at Al's Breakfast every Saturday morning and Mesa Pizza every Saturday night. A neighborhood sports shop displays maroon-and-gold "Dinkytown" shirts in the window.

But daytime student traffic has slowed in recent years, especially as more dining options became available on campus, Eide-Tollefson said.

Gray's Campus Drug, a longtime neighborhood presence, closed in 1998. The pharmacy couldn't compete when Target opened two miles away, said Skott Johnson, owner of a Dinkytown printing shop and president of the area's business association. Its closing left the neighborhood without a druggist for more than a decade.

Many of Dinkytown's current stores sell specialty goods, among them belly-dance supplies, turntable needles and glass hookahs. The new CVS -- and its general selection -- could entice people off campus and into Dinkytown, Eide-Tollefson said.

And the pharmacy will likely draw more than students, said Johnson, owner of Autographics Printing. "We're all for preserving the smaller businesses in Dinkytown, and hopefully CVS will just add to that," he said.

At least one longtime neighborhood business will face direct competition from CVS. The House of Hanson, a family grocery store that has spanned four generations and eight decades, sits a two-block walk away from its newest neighbor.

The historic corner grocer sells everything from toothbrushes to organic soup. About 90 percent of its customers are college students, owner Laurel Bauer said.

"Dinkytown needed a pharmacy," Bauer said. "I'm hoping that I will maintain my standing in the neighborhood."

Construction began in May at CVS, which will employ 20 people when it opens its doors in mid-August. The 11,500-square-foot site fills much of the ground floor of Sydney Hall, a new student housing high-rise. The college location will boost the pharmacy chain's count to 41 in Minnesota and add to the company's expansion in the Twin Cities, spokesman Mike DeAngelis said.

The store remained almost empty Friday afternoon, with the exception of a large "Help Wanted" poster hanging in the window. Several men washed windows and vacuumed debris inside.

Meanwhile, an Erbert and Gerbert's Sandwich Shop sign hung above the site next door. The sub shop would be one of two restaurants to move into the college area this fall.

Buffalo Wild Wings is awaiting its final licenses for an outlet in the historic Station 19 building, across the street from TCF Bank Stadium, its regional manager said. The St. Louis Park-based chicken-wing chain hopes to open at the University Avenue and Oak Street location in December.

Molly Young • 612-673-4376