CVS planned for depot site; bus service future uncertain

By MATTHEW DeFOUR | 608-252-6144 | mdefour@madison.com | Posted: September 30, 2009

Pharmacy retailer CVS plans to build one of its first Madison-area stores Downtown, at the former Badger Bus depot, which is scheduled for demolition next week.

Greyhound Bus Lines will use the terminal through Sunday, and the company has not yet confirmed a new location for the intercity bus service. Demolition begins Oct. 8, Badger Coaches co-owner John Meier said.

In July, the City Council approved a mixed-use redevelopment of the depot site at West Washington Avenue and Bedford Street. The project includes 83 apartments and a CVS pharmacy with a drive-up window that the city's plan commission approved Sept. 14.

The apartments should be occupied by next August, Meier said. The 12,000-square-foot CVS won't open until 2011, spokesperson Joanne Dwyer said.

CVS is the largest retail pharmacy in the country, with 7,000 stores in 41 states. The company opened its first store in Dane County last year in Middleton and has been in talks to open a store at the stalled Union Corners project on the East Side. That proposal ran into neighborhood opposition partly because it would have been across the street from a rival Walgreens.

The new CVS would be within a mile of three Walgreens on the Capitol Square, University Square and State Street, something at least one neighborhood resident flagged as a concern, said Ald. Mike Verveer, 4th District, who lives across the street from the depot. On the whole, however, there weren't many complaints about the CVS, Verveer said.

"My constituents thought it would be an amenity," Verveer said.

It remained unclear what Greyhound will do starting Monday. A possible relocation to a former Popeye's restaurant on Madison's East Side didn't work out, a Greyhound spokesman said.

The city has been working closely with Greyhound to find a suitable location, Metro Transit general manager Chuck Kamp said.

"No one wants them to have Sunday or Monday come and they don't have a solution," Kamp said. "That's not a good place to be for anybody."


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