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Below is letter of invitation sent to Mayor Murphy that describes the issue and the requests that we are making to Rite-Aid April 9, 2003 Honorable Thomas Murphy Mayor City of Pittsburgh 414 Grant Street Pittsburgh, PA 15219 Dear Mayor Murphy: We are writing to request your support at a press conference this coming Monday, April 14th at 1:00 PM in front of the Rite-Aid at 5160 Penn Avenue. There is an emerging community movement to address pressing concerns related to the pending closing of the Rite-Aid store on Penn Ave at the crossroads of the Bloomfield, Garfield, and Friendship community. We hope you will join us and many community residents to stress the importance of cooperation on the part of Rite-Aid corporation. The BGC was alerted that the Rite-Aid corporation plans to not renew its lease for the store when it expires in August this year. With this closing, our community will lose its pharmacy, and its only bank branch, and will gain an additional 9,000 square feet of blight. This potential loss holds great significance for the health of this neighborhood - especially for senior citizens and residents without private transportation. Additionally, the implications of this store closing penetrate deeply into ongoing efforts to continue the positive growth in commercial investments that has been diligently fostered on this section of the Penn Ave business district. Our specific issues with the pending pull out of Rite-Aid are as follows: * The corporation made its decision to close this store without communicating with community leadership about any operating deficiencies it may have been experiencing, which would have allowed us to organize the communities to support the store and address any issues. This situation directly contrasts with the corporation's early experiences with the community when it was searching for a location and again when community leadership worked to secure the National City Bank branch for the location, which pays rent to the corporation. * The Rite-Aid corporation was going to quietly close the store in August and leave the community with its new blight - rather than notifying us so that we could begin to work on an alternative use or help the store meet the goals of its original business plan, which it has now abandoned. The BGC was alerted to the pending closure by the site's realtor - not Rite-Aid. (Rite-Aid's statement of Core Values states "We communicate openly, honestly and accurately with our stakeholders" and "We are caring neighbors, involved in community activities in meaningful ways" * After learning of the plans to close the store, the BGC worked out a deal with the site's realtor to extend the lease by just one year to provide the community with time to mitigate the store's presumed business shortcomings and if necessary, time to organize for a substitute user at the site. In addition, the BGC successfully negotiated with the realtor a deal to save the store $12,000 over the extension period by requesting that the realtor to cover the real estate taxes for the location - they agreed. * The Rite-Aid corporation now will not return phone calls or answer letters outlining the BGC's efforts and successes on its behalf. Apparently, only when they need some help building their empire will they work with community, or care to speak with us "openly, honestly and accurately." Your support is needed to help communicate the need for the Rite-Aid corporation to stand behind its commitment to work with the community it supposedly supports, rather than tending quietly to its own self interests. We hope you will do everything within your power to assist us and join us at the press conference on Monday. This is a citywide issue, as there are Rite-Aids in several city communities, which may want to start organizing now so that they can protect themselves from such a surprise exit of an important community asset and the potentially devastating effects that accompany the loss. Hope to see you at the press conference! Respectfully, Aggie Brose Deputy Director Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation |