Pace Courts CVS as Main Tenant for Skinker/Delmar Project

Nov 12, 20182 min read

Updated: Feb 21, 2019

This story was originally published on November 12th on the old website.

In Early January 2017, the Delmar Loop, and interested individuals in general, got their first look at what was once called "Northgate". The 3 floor development would match the neighborhood's aesthetic of brick and retail space. Now, nearly 2 years since it's unveiling, Pace Properties is moving forward with the project, now named "The Link at the Loop", with a major redesign and a major tenant. That tenant is CVS Pharmacy, which is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. CVS will occupy 10,618SF of ground floor retail space and will become the first pharmacy on the Loop. The redesign includes the loss of the "tower" at Skinker and Delmar and large floor to ceiling windows have been added, along Skinker, to give the building a more modern design.

However, some elements of the original design carry through. An office tenant deck, on the second floor, overlooks the Loop while CVS's drive-thru pharmacy will be topped by 2 floors of office space. The available amount of office space currently stands at 50,000SF. The office entrance will be off of Skinker and will be situated next door to a parking lot built as part of the project. In addition to the 50,000SF of office space, an additional 6,313SF of retail space is available fronting Delmar. In total, the development will bring nearly 70,000SF of new commercial space to the ever growing Delmar Loop.

The Link at the Loop will replace a now vacated Shell Station that brought numerous problems to the Loop and was out of place in neighborhood that has rapidly urbanized in the past decade. Upon the project's completion, in what I believe to be in Early 2020 (despite Pace's website saying Q4 2019), it will activate the second of 4 corners for pedestrians. Plans are also underway for a mixed use building catty corner to this project on the old Church's Chicken lot while AT&T seems not ready to sell their parking lot on the opposite corner. The old cost of the project was put at $30 Million but no word on whether that figure went up based on the redesign. BatesForum is acting as the architect in this project.

Additional renderings are below...