The Roanoke Times | File 2008

Ukrop's Super Market on Franklin Road opened with much fanfare in June 2007. In December 2008, however, the president of the grocery chain said the store wasn't attracting enough customers.

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Ukrop's Super Market will shutter its pharmacy this month in an attempt to shave costs and keep its Roanoke store open, the store manager said Monday.

The grocer's pharmacy, situated at the back of the store on Franklin Road, will close Feb. 21. All prescriptions and patient records will be transferred to the CVS pharmacy on Colonial Avenue in Roanoke, states a letter mailed to Ukrop's pharmacy customers late last week. A notice also is posted at the store.

Ukrop's store manager Jason Woodcock emphasized that the pharmacy's closing has no bearing on the supermarket's fate. However, it's a step to ensure that the local grocery operation does not have the same ending.

"It'll help sustain long-term viability in Roanoke," Woodcock said. "We want everyone to look at this as a positive thing. This is to help us continue to stay in Roanoke."

Late last year, Ukrop's officials disclosed that the local store was not performing as well as expected and that it needed more business to keep its doors open. With much fanfare, the Richmond-based grocery chain opened the 58,000-square-foot store in June 2007. It sports an underground parking garage, an in-store cafe and a Starbucks kiosk.

Bobby Ukrop, president and chief executive officer of Ukrop's, said in December the grocer has had trouble changing local consumers' shopping patterns, which drive them to other grocery stores in the region. Also, the lack of additional stores at the Ivy Market retail center, where Ukrop's is located, has hampered the grocer's ability to draw shoppers, he has said.

Meanwhile, IMD Investment Group, the owner and developer of Ivy Market, is slated to receive its first grant payment of $522,542 from the city of Roanoke, said Brian Townsend, assistant city manager for community development. According to a tax incentives agreement between the company, headed by Bland Painter, and the city, IMD can receive the amount that Ivy Market generates in tax revenue up to $600,000 annually, for 15 years.

A Walgreens store is under construction adjacent to Ukrop's, though the coming of the national pharmacy chain was not a factor in the pharmacy's closing, Woodcock said.

The in-store pharmacy was not getting the business that Ukrop's wanted, he said, and "it is a costly part of our business."

Woodcock would not disclose the pharmacy's total number of prescription accounts.

Two employees will lose their jobs when the pharmacy closes, he said.

Alongside the financial struggles of Ukrop's in Roanoke, the first phase of the Ivy Market retail center still is incomplete. Walgreens must open by April 30 for IMD to receive additional city taxpayer funds in an amount based on tax revenues generated by the drugstore and Ukrop's combined. Last year, the Roanoke City Council extended Walgreens' opening deadline for the third time.

Painter said Monday that the drug store should open this spring. He declined to state an opening date or month.

Of the incentives payment that IMD is yet to receive from the city, Painter said, "This funding helps to offset a portion of the debt used to build the infrastructure" at Ivy Market.

Because of the poor economic climate, no other retailers will be coming to Ivy Market, at least for now, Painter said in December.