Bond Community Health Center is debuting a new pharmacy on Tallahassee’s south side that will be open to all residents, not just its clients.
Located at Palmer and South Monroe streets, the full-retail pharmacy is larger in both space and inventory compared to Bond’s existing pharmacy that’s been housed at its main Gadsden Street campus for more than 10 years, said Dr. Zandra Glenn, Bond’s pharmacy director.
The new pharmacy includes a drive-through and fills a vital need following a series of pharmacy closings that impacted southside residents, including the closure of a CVS store on South Monroe Street in March 2023.
“After all of the other pharmacies in the neighborhood started closing, we realized that a lot of patients aren’t patients at Bond but they just did not have access to a pharmacy within our community,” Glenn said. “They had to go a long distance to be able to get access to a pharmacy … The purpose of this is to provide a service for people who live in this community that don’t want to truck all the way to SouthWood.”
The challenge, for many residents, was the lack of transportation and a need to access a pharmacy that’s served by StarMetro, the city’s public transportation. The new pharmacy is attached to Bond’s Pediatric Center, which is next door to a city bus stop.
“We had a lot of moms with young children that were getting prescriptions,” Glenn said. “Even though the pharmacy we had within our facility (at Gadsden Street), which was about .1 miles away, if you’re traveling with sick kids and you don’t have a car, you don’t want to track down the street, especially in the heat.”
Now, she said, “they’re able to go right next door.”
In addition, it will maintain extended hours by closing at 8 p.m. weekdays and by 6 p.m. on Saturdays; it will be closed on Sundays.
Bond’s new pharmacy launched June 25 with a soft opening, and it’s slated to be fully operational in the next two months. Glenn said more time is needed to secure commitments with third-party healthcare plan providers, such as Capital Health Plan and Blue Cross and Blue Shield, before the pharmacy opens its doors to the public.
“Right now, we’re waiting for responses from all those third-party plans,” said Glenn, adding Bond plans to host an official grand opening in about two months. “It takes a while for all of the credentials.”
The pharmacy is the latest outreach effort underway at Bond. The Democrat reported in March that it’s also in the early stages for a proposed men’s facility that will be threefold: medical, affordable housing and a conference center with two buildings totaling 16,500 square feet.
Bond CEO Dr. Temple Robinson said the pharmacy represents the completion of Phase II of the three-phase plan that was supported by the Tallahassee Community Redevelopment Agency following a recommendation by the Greater Frenchtown/Southside CRA Advisory Committee.
“The final phase will be the upgrades to the façade of the building,” Robinsons said. “We hope the pharmacy will serve the residents of the south side for many years to come.”
Contact Economic Development Reporter TaMaryn Waters at tlwaters@tallahassee.com and follow @TaMarynWaters on X.