Pharmacy Closing Brings Another

Vacancy To Eton Centers

By John Voket

Pharmacy patrons, or those looking for some price competition when it comes to buying their batteries, seasonal suntan lotion, or various other sundries will have one less option after Sunday.

According to company officials, the Brooks Pharmacy on the corner of Queen Street and Church Hill Road will be permanently closing at the end of the business day, April 30.

According to Brooks Pharmacy’s corporate communications spokesperson, Helen Bisson, there was no information available as to the reason why the store was closing, or if all the store’s employees would be provided with work at other locations.

“We will try to relocate employees to the next closest Brooks stores,” Ms Bisson said from the company headquarters in Warwick, R.I., Tuesday. A store locator on the company’s website showed the next closest Brooks locations are on Greenwood Avenue in Bethel, on Main Street in Monroe, or on Padanaram Road in Danbury.

The Brooks spokesperson said that all prescription files had been sold to neighboring CVS, located across the street in the Newtown Shopping Village. “Beginning immediately, CVS will be filling prescriptions for former Newtown Brooks Pharmacy customers,” she said.

Ann Cote, who was working behind the counter at Newtown Color paint store was unhappy to hear the news.

“Actually I’m pretty upset,” she said, glancing toward the pharmacy across the parking lot. “It was really convenient for us to go right over to get supplies or stationary.

While Ms Cote did not think Newtown Color would lose any business because of the Brooks closing, she acknowledged that the expanding empty space beside her store seemed inappropriate for a shopping plaza in the center of town. The only remaining business in the Newtown Eton Centers commercial area on Queen Street is a Wachovia bank branch.

“It’s not like Brooks customers would decide on the spur of the moment to come over here to shop for paint,” she said. “But I wish they would get something else in there. A good bookstore would be a great addition here.”

Ms Cote was not the only one hoping for some real development of another business or businesses in Newtown Eton Centers. First Selectman Herb Rosenthal was not shy about expressing his regret over the plaza’s owners’ inability or seeming unwillingness to aggressively seek a tenant for the vacant Grand Union store.

That facility has been unoccupied for several years, and is a frequent source of discussion for local residents and those looking to spur further economic development in the borough, including the first selectman.

“I’m always unhappy to lose a good business, to lose opportunities for our citizens to have more choices in pharmacy services, and to lose valued employees,” Mr Rosenthal said upon learning of the Brooks store’s closing. “Hopefully we’ll have someone to rent the entire space. At least with Brooks closing, it will provide an opportunity for the owners to do some necessary improvements to the property to entice new tenants.”

Mr Rosenthal said it has become increasingly frustrating to see such a prime location vacant for so long.

“It doesn’t appear that the owners have exhibited much desire to improve the property,” he said. “I know our office has been contacted in the past by the bank and former management at Brooks dismayed that the landlord has done so little to improve the lighting and parking situation.”

Mr Rosenthal would not speculate about whether he thought the relation between the landlord and the Brooks management over the property’s condition had anything to do with the pharmacy closing.

“Maybe the larger space will bode well for a larger tenant,” he said. “I know for a fact that a regional grocery chain has been looking at the property for some time.”