Branson/Tri-Lakes News: Nebraska developer invests $8M in two Walgreens sites

The development company’s owner, Tam Allan, said the first store at Branson West on State Highway 13 will open in early fall; the second, at the corner of Birch and Industrial Park Drive in Hollister, will open in early 2009.

Allan said mounting speculation that he was building a third Walgreens at the corner of State Highway 248 and Epps Road in north Branson is not true. “We continue to look around, but have no other plans at this time,” he said, noting that his company has already built five Walgreens in southwest Missouri.

Lisa Allen of Missouri Partners Inc., the company that owns the Highway 248 property, said the acreage has been excavated, but its use has yet to determined.

Another Walgreens in southwest Branson, 210 S. Highway 165, has been in operation since 1995, according to Vicki Johnson, general manager of a Walgreens in Springfield.

The general contractor for both Walgreens under construction is Oklahoma City-based Fuller Miller Construction LLC. Don Miller, a partner in the company, said Fuller Miller Construction has constructed more than 100 Walgreens across the country.

The Branson West and Hollister retail stores each will have 14,500 square feet with a drive-through lane for pharmacy pick-ups. Miller said Davis Design of Lincoln, Neb., is the architect, as well as the structural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineer. The civil engineer is Olsson Associates in Springfield.

Allan said each store would hire about 30 employees, including three to four pharmacists. He estimated the total cost of land and construction for each store would be about $4 million. Village Development’s lender is First National Bank Omaha.

Allan said his company has a purchase agreement with both stores that will give ownership to Walgreens upon completion of construction. Allan said his firm has developed about 60 stores for Walgreens in a region covering Nebraska, South Dakota, parts of Iowa and southwest Missouri. Allan is not currently planning to build any other stores in southwest Missouri.

According to Walgreens corporate spokeswoman Carol Hively, the stores will fall into Walgreens’ District 306, which has its headquarters in Springfield. Hively said Walgreens plans to open 550 new stores across the United States during fiscal 2008, which ends in August.[[In-content Ad]]