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Prominent downtown Fresno pharmacy location has new owner after six months vacant

Fresno Bee/Fresno Bee file photo

The Fresno Housing Authority is buying the former CVS Pharmacy property in downtown Fresno as the possible site of a future affordable, mixed-use development.

Fresnoland reported the move in its Documenters coverage by Kendra Staub of Tuesday’s FHA Joint Boards of Commissioners meeting.

The site faces Tuolumne Street and sits across from the FHA’s Fulton Street office. The sales price is $2.8 million, Fresnoland reported, and the purchase was approved unanimously.

According to the meeting agenda, future use as a mixed-use development is “speculative at this time” and staff anticipates that the property will continue to be used as a parking lot until a future land-use decision is made.

FHA manages and/or owns nearly 80 multi‑family housing developments throughout Fresno County, according to its website.

The CVS store at 1302 Fulton St. shut its doors Sept. 13. The 22,350-square-foot building with the large parking lot was for decades a mainstay at the north end of the Fulton Mall.

The store was built in 1973 and for years operated as a Longs Drugs store until that chain was taken over by CVS in 2008.

The property is owned by Longs Drugs Stores California Inc., an entity that kept its name after CVS purchased the Longs chain in 2008. Fresno County property tax data online in September indicated that the site had an assessed value of almost $2 million, including $285,000 for the land under the store.