Two of seven properties that would be razed to make room for a CVS pharmacy. Credit: Karen Gadbois / The Lens

Permits to demolish seven structures at the corner of Elysian Fields and Claiborne avenues to make way for a new CVS pharmacy have been filed; a hearing before the Neighborhood Conservation District Commission is slated for Monday.

CVS had earlier proposed locating the branch in a new building on St. Claude Avenue in the Marigny neighborhood. That idea met with substantial neighborhood resistance to the “big box” development and the number of structures that would have to be demolished to accommodate a store of that size.

The new plan would put the building on the North Derbigny side of Claiborne. A gas station would be razed to make room for parking. Other structures targeted for demolition include a car wash, a funeral home, two residential structures and several modular metal structures.

The CVS paperwork and other applications that will be addressed at the meeting are available online.

Karen Gadbois co-founded The Lens. She now covers New Orleans government issues and writes about land use. With television reporter Lee Zurik she exposed widespread misuse of city recovery funds and led...

6 replies on “Seven buildings would be demolished as CVS plan migrates to Elysian Fields at Claiborne”

  1. So, if another “big box” chain meets with too much resistance, move to another neighborhood that has no organized opposition? Bywater (poor and crime) as opposed to Marigny? This type of reasoning just keeps eating into more and more neighborhoods.

  2. So what would you suggest? The owners are being paid very well for their business and properties. And that intersection is the worst in the area with the homeless, panhandlers all over the place. Almost as bad as Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.

    If you are a small business owner in the area, you are definitely hurt by the homeless and panhandlers that are constantly at the intersection and the city doesn’t nothing about it.

    And as long as panhandlers and homeless are at these intersections all across the city, traditional new small businesses and mom and pops (that don’t sell alcohol or have gambling) will not want to open up in these areas.

    IMO, that intersection will be no different than those intersections down the road at I-610 and Elysian Fields where there are still murders and crime, it will just have new buildings but still have lots and lots of crime.

  3. Geeze AhContraire, maybe CVS should target the block you live on and demolish your residential structure. Surely, they will pay you fair, market price. As far as the panhandlers and homeless (God help them and “The poor, they will always be with us.”) who dot this area and others, I do not see them as a hindrance but rather a reminder of “the times” that all of us share one way or another.

  4. yeah. a CVS will magically eliminate “panhandlers and homeless.” Please, enlighten us with more of your urban-development wisdom. haha.

  5. I didn’t say a CVS will eliminate “panhandlers and homeless”.

    Getting rid of the alcohol sold at intersection would make a difference just like closing that corner grocery store around the Fair Ground made a difference.

    Fairgrounds Triangle neighborhood continues to fight return of store
    http://bit.ly/1mrMvqs

  6. The Fairgrounds Triangle Neighborhood isn’t exactly what I would call comparable to BYWATER and the St. Roch Neighborhood Association. Looks like CVS is on its way (approved) as they consider what other structures need to be rezoned and demolished. It’s like the food chain and the climate. How dumb can we be? How can one little thing impact the WHOLE DAMN THING?!

Comments are closed.