We've gotten some questions in recent weeks about construction taking place at 1506-08 Spruce St., a commercial building that's struggled to keep tenants. For a long time, there was a pizza place at the corner of Hicks & Spruce. We can remember an Italian place holding down one of the retail spaces at one point. There was a lounge of some kind more recently. But more than any one tenant, we remember that the spaces here seem to have been vacant more often than not.
But vacancy won't be an issue anymore. That's because the CVS next door is expanding into the space. Of course, CVS locations come in all shapes and sizes, and in theory the bigger the better for a CVS. It's a shame that the block will lose the retail diversity, but it seems that these spaces never worked for any businesses anyway. So let's agree, something in the building is better than the revolving door we've seen.
What's most interesting to us is that the CVS will soon have a space that exceeds that of the supermarket that preceded it. Looking at old photos, we can see that the space that's now under construction was an add-on, probably built in the 1970s. We remember when this was a supermarket, but we don't go back to the Acme days.
Man, looking back at what this building used to look like just totally bummed us out. Those signs! Those second floor windows! The second and third stories on the western portion! What we wouldn't give for a ride in the Delorean to see this thing in person.