Owner Still Seeking Buyer for Longtime Reston Pharmacy

The owner of Lakeside Pharmacy - for years the place to fill a prescription, order a grilled cheese sandwich or mail a package at the in-store U.S. Post Office - is still seeking a buyer for the property.

Larry Cohn, owner of the property for more than 40 years, says the process of selling the pharmacy is "not going anywhere," despite lowering his asking price drastically over the last few months.

Cohn says the slowing of the economy may be the reason. When the pharmacy does sell,  Cohn said he doesn't expect the new owner will keep the space as a pharmacy.

"I've always wanted it to stay like this," he said. "It's not going to happen today."

The pharmacy is located on Lake Anne Plaza, Reston's pilot project in the mid-1960s.

 Construction on the plaza started in 1963, and the center officially opened in 1965. The pharmacy used to house an old-fashioned soda fountain, but that space has changed over the years, and is now a restaurant called Roti Grill. Before it was Roti Grill, the soda fountain space housed a Mexican restaurant.

Competition from Reston Town Center, which opened in 1990, and chain drugstores such as CVS and have impacted businesses at Lake Anne,

When it is sold, Lakeside Pharmacy will be missed, said Eve Thompson, chair of the plaza's merchant committee and a realtor with Long & Foster.

"I think there's huge fondness for the place and for the business," she said.

According to a posting on Craig's List, the space housing the pharmacy and Roti Grill is available for $695,000. That is the county assessment on the space, said Barbara Bechtle, vice-president of Woodmark Commercial Services, LLC, the listing company for the property. The price has been reduced more than $200,000.

One potential buyer who contacted Bechtle was a pharmacist, but that person is no longer interested, she said.

"We are working on trying to attract another pharmacist," she said.

When asked about other possibilities for the property, Thompson said there's been requests for a bakery. A small-scale grocery store or a restaurant could work too, she says. The center's niche is locally-owned, boutique shops and restaurants, she said.

"We're not corporate," she said.

Cohn, who lives in Culpeper, said he doesn't know what's next for him. He'd like to work closer to his home, saying he's "not ready to hang it up completely yet."

"Who knows how much longer I'm going to be here?" he said.