An artist's rendition shows the front of the proposed Walgreens as it would be seen of East Lincoln Highway.

When the Brandywine Health Center opened in April, Francis Sheehan remarked she believed it would attract other developers to Coatesville's East End. She wasn't mistaken. Monday night the nation's largest drugstore chain presented city council with plans for a pharmacy and convenience center to be built only a block away.

Walgreens plans to demolish the small, strip mall at Eighth Avenue and East Lincoln Highway and replace it with a larger building that, according to Ross Weis, its representative, "will be state-of-art Walgreens."

Plans for the proposed Walgreens store in Coatesville show how much larger the building will be compared to the existing building. The dotted lines outline the existing mini-mall building. To the right is the ballfield at Abdalla Park.

Weis said Eric Seidman, president of the Northern Development Co, the construction firm that will actually build the Walgreens pharmacy and convenience center, already has the property under agreement of sale. He said Walgreens could be open as early as the spring, providing of building permits and a small zoning variance. He said he expects construction to begin the first of the year.

Plans for Walgreens call for the access to the drugstore from both East Lincoln Highway and Olive Street. Currently the present strip mall can be accessed only from Eighth Avenue and East Lincoln Highway. Also, said Weis, a drive-up window will fact Olive Street. The drug store, he said, will be open 24/7.

Weis said Walgreens will be asking for a zoning variance that will reduce a 30-foot setback requirement to a 10-foot setback for the side of the building facing Eighth Avenue. The present building has no setback and butts up directly with the sidewalk.

"This will be a nice complement to what is happening in Coatesville," said Weis.

Weis said Walgreens selected Coatesville after doing its regular market research. "Coatesville is a place they decided they needed to be," he said.

And what about Francis Sheehans belief the Brandywine Health Center would draw developers into Coatesville?

"It worked," said Weis.

Sheehan is the CEO for the Brandywine Health Foundation, the driving force behind the construction of the $16 million Brandywine Health Center.