CVS and Village Sign Lease for Parking
Lot
by Seth Goldstein
(December 11, 2002
) You'll be able to buy eggs and OJ along with Pampers
when CVS opens on the old Larchmont Grand Union site
next year. But if you're planning on parking in the
CVS lot and taking a coffee or food break on the block,
keep your eye on the clock.
After months of negotiations, the Village of Larchmont
has agreed to lease CVS the part of the Chatsworth Avenue
parking lot owned by the Village. According to terms
of the five-year, $191,000 parking-lot lease signed
last month by the Village and the retailer, CVS customers
may park in the lot for only one-hour between 8 a.m.
to 7 p.m. and two hours from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. "The
Village shall enforce these parking limitations,"
the lease says--which presumably means police officers
will be ticketing.
 
Polite confrontations may ensue. Even during Grand
Union's day, locals paid scant attention to any limits;
in the two years since the store closed, the lot's 60-plus
spaces have become fair game for whatever-time-you-need
parking. Old habits die hard, and with the spread of
attractions on that stretch of Chatsworth Avenue, the
police may have a hard time placating violators who
don't have many alternatives.
CVS, meanwhile, must do its part to comply with the
lease agreement. At a minimum, the Chatsworth store
must stock milk, orange juice, eggs, cold cereal, and
butter, in an effort to answer residents' complaints
that Larchmont needs more than just another drug-and-sundries
outlet. (For further inventory hints, visit the outlet
located at White Plains Road and Brook Street in Eastchester.
It's the model for Larchmont.)
The chain has also agreed to pay for "streetscape
improvements" in front of the store and environs,
plus $20,000 to beautify that slip of a park next to
the lot. One expected improvement is a better-looking
building facade. According to Diane Neff', Chair of
the Board of Architectural Review, her group worked
with CVS on a facade that would appear pleasing to pedestrians
as well as vehicles passing by. The Village Planning
Commission also encouraged CVS to come up with a safer
traffic flow and better landscaping, as can be seen
in the architect's rendering reproduced above.
To rent the Village's portion of the lot, CVS will
be writing a $36,000 check for the
first year, $37,080 for the second, $38,192.40 for the
third, $39,338.17 for
the fourth, and $40,518.32 for the fifth. Grand total:
$191,128.89.
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