August 2024 marked the end of the Rite Aid drug store at West 65th Street and Franklin Boulevard in Cleveland’s Gordon Square neighborhood. But Goodwill announced last week that it will open a store here this summer (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
New store to offer 20 jobs, summer opening
On Friday, Ward 15 Councilwoman Jenny Spencer shared on her Facebook page a letter to the community from Goodwill Industries that they will open this summer a store at 6512 Franklin Blvd. in Cleveland’s Gordon Square neighborhood. The location is a former Rite Aid drug store that closed in August 2024.
The letter, from Anne Richards, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Greater Cleveland and East Central Ohio, Inc., noted that the nonprofit will open the doors of its newest store, offering a new place to shop, donate and make a difference in the community.
“Gordon Square is known for its energy, creativity and strong sense of community, and we are honored to be a part of it,” Richards wrote. “Our new store is more than just a place to find unique treasures and great deals — it’s an opportunity to support Goodwill’s life-changing mission.”
This will be Goodwill’s 21st retail location in its 10-county service area. She noted that every purchase and donation directly supports 30 local outreach programs, including job training, job placement, access to social services, family-strengthening initiatives and crisis support programs. Last year, Goodwill helped more than 22,000 people in the community gain valuable skills and employment opportunities.
“Goodwill also is creating approximately 20 new jobs for the area, investing in the local economy and strengthening the neighborhood,” Richards added.
In April 2004, two years before it was demolished for the Rite Aid store, the site on the west side of West 65th Street, between Franklin Boulevard and West Clinton Avenue, was a CVS drug store. Before that it was a Revco drug store. But it was built in 1965 as a Pic-N-Pay grocery store, next to West Clinton (Google).
The location, shown as the Gordon Square store, is already listed on Goodwill’s job listings page on its Web site, although no jobs have been posted yet. Richards said a grand opening date hasn’t been announced. She said she expected to share one “soon.”
On March 12, Goodwill opened a building application file at the city of Cleveland’s Building Department Web portal but has yet to upload to it any site plans or provide other details about their intentions for retrofitting the store building or otherwise changing any features on the 2.27-acre property.
Goodwill reportedly intends to lease the property from its owner, Dallas-based K & Z Mutual Realty, LLC which has owned the site since acquiring it in 1996 by a pre-merger predecessor Mutual Investment Properties, LLC.
The existing 14,630-square-foot building was constructed in 2007, according to Cuyahoga County property records. City Building Department records show it was constructed by JJO Construction Inc. of Mentor for about $1.8 million.
The landlord has a local history with philanthropic tenants. Last year, K & Z Mutual Realty sold 20.4 acres on Coit Road in Collinwood to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank for $3.5 million. The food bank in 2021 had built on that site its 200,000-square-foot Partner Distribution Hub.
From 1890 to about 1964, the Tinnerman mansion stood at the northwest corner of West 65th Street and Franklin Boulevard. In the 1940s, it became the Kaufmann Funeral Home but was demolished for a Pic-N-Pay grocery store that later became a Revco then CVS drug store (Cleveland Public Library).
While acknowledging the new Goodwill store on her Facebook page, Spencer responded to a constituent that “The loss of the Rite Aid has really left a hole in our community.”
Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections in 2023 in connection to lawsuits and losses, according to the Associated Press. It has closed all but four Ohio stores — it previously had about 180. But it isn’t the only drug store chain hurting these days.
Thousands of drugstores are closing nationwide due to factors like declining reimbursement rates for prescriptions, rising competition from online retailers and big-box stores, plus changes in consumer shopping habits, leading to reduced profits and a need to streamline operations.
Some of these former drug stores are already finding new uses. In neighboring Ward 11, Councilman Danny Kelly told NEOtrans in December that three stores in his area are transitioning to new users including a small supermarket with gas station, a senior center and a fire station.
The Gordon Square Rite-Aid was built on the site of a former CVS drug store, demolished in about 2006. Prior 1997, it was home to a Revco drug store, before CVS acquired the Twinsburg-based chain of 2,500 stores. Revco acquired the store building and property from the Pick-N-Pay grocery chain, which built the structure in 1965 on the site of the Kaufmann Funeral Home. It had converted the 1890-built Tinnerman mansion sometime in the 1940s.
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