CVS Returns With New Outpost On The Upper West Side

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — After a series of closures across New York City this winter, CVS is now expanding its footprint with a new location set to open on the Upper West Side.

Slated to open later this summer, the pharmacy chain will take over the storefront on the corner of Broadway and West 103rd Street, Amy Thibault, a company spokesperson, confirmed with Patch.

The forthcoming store will occupy about half the length of the block and will adhere to the standard pharmacy layout. However, it won't include a MinuteClinic, Thibault confirmed.

Additional information about the store, such as an exact opening date, is still under wraps.

The new store will encompass approximately 8,000 sq. ft and will occupy the street level of The Rockwell, a recently constructed luxury apartment building.

This opening marks a departure from CVS's recent spate of pharmacy closures.

In February, the company closed its longstanding Broadway location at the corner of West 93rd Street. Shortly after, it shuttered its pharmacy within the Target store at Columbus Avenue and West 98th Street, as well as its location at 1241 Lexington Ave., near East 84th Street.

Prior to these closures, the CVS on the Upper East Side shut down in September 2023.

At that time, reasons cited for the closures included local market dynamics, population shifts, community store density, and the accessibility of other nearby pharmacy options, Thibault said, noting that there are over 60 CVS pharmacies in New York City.

In 2021, CVS Health announced plans to close 900 stores nationwide — about 10 percent of their retail operations — in response to changing consumer patterns, ABC reported.

A retail analyst said that the closures come from "too many overlapping locations," and that poor conditions at many stores have "pushed some of them into the downward spiral of irrelevance," ABC reported.