SPRINGFIELD — Trying to boost health in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, Tobias Billups will marry his expertise running a full-service pharmacy with a grocery store, so people in the McKnight area have easy access to fresh food.
Billups, a lifelong city resident, opened the independent neighborhood Springfield Pharmacy in the North End in 2019. That business is now “bursting at the seams,” and he is planning on moving and expanding to the former Walgreens Pharmacy building on State Street, which has been closed for about 18 months.
“When this property became available … I wanted to bring something into the neighborhood that the neighborhood could be proud of, and it could help them,” Billups said. “Food definitely is part of the issue with an unhealthy neighborhood.”
Billups, who has been in the pharmacy business for decades, said he wants to provide more opportunities for people to eat healthier. If someone can reduce their medications by eating better, it will be an asset to everyone, even if it means a little less businesses for him on the pharmacy side.
“I’m taking a leap of faith,” Billups said. “I can build a pharmacy with my eyes closed, but this is all new to me.”
On the corner of State and Hancock Streets in Springfield, a former Walgreens is to be reopened as an independent pharmacy. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)Douglas Hook
His plan is to open in May with a full pharmacy. The grocery will grow slowly, starting with a full-service deli counter, with fresh meats, cheeses and a limited amount of prepared foods. He also will have some produce and frozen foods on opening day.
He said he will increase the offerings over time, essentially turning it into a smaller but full-service grocery store.
“I want people to be able to come in here and spend $20, and get a nice healthy meal, as opposed to going across the street for (fast food),” he said.
The idea is to be a walk or short drive away to give people easy access. Billups currently delivers medicine from Springfield Pharmacy in the North End and said he plans to have the same thing for his grocery and pharmacy on State Street. He also is considering starting a van service to provide transportation to customers.
“We will have 70 to 80 percent of grocery items, just not the specialty items,” he said. “We will take WIC and SNAP (food assistance vouchers), so we will have things like baby formula and all your staples.”
Eventually, Billups said he also wants to bring in a chef to teach classes on healthy cooking for neighborhood residents who have limited culinary skills.
He also will be creating jobs. Currently he has about 30 employees, including seven pharmacists in the North End. Most of them will move to the new store, and Billups expects to add 30 to 40 more within a year. He estimates another seven people will work at the pharmacy in the Gandara building.
State Sen. Bud L. Williams, whose district includes the McKnight neighborhood, has been fighting to get a grocery store in the area for years. Since many of his residents rely on public transportation, shopping can be difficult.
He argued there are plenty of fast food restaurants in the neighborhood and a few convenience stores, but the only nearby place people can shop for fresh produce is Gardening the Community on Walnut Street.
Getting a grocery to move in is one of the ways he’s sought to provide basic health care to low-income people statewide.
Williams and state Rep. Judith Garcia, of Boston, have filed an Act to Advance Health Equity, which is currently in committee. The bill calls for an investigation by a special commission to explore health inequities and to establish an executive office of health equity.
“When Walgreens closed, we envisioned a pharmacy here and a way to address the food desert concerns,” Williams said.
He started talking to Billups about the pharmacy, and that snowballed into a bigger project. Williams and his staff has helped him apply for a state grant through the Underutilized Properties Program to help get the business off the ground.
Williams said they also have worked with Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and other city officials to find grants and other ways to help defray start-up costs for Billups.
After signing a lease for the building, Billups said he has spent “several hundreds of thousands of dollars” renovating, painting and cleaning to get the store ready to suit his needs. One of the things he did was add walls to expand the size of the pharmacy space.
He also added an office for a nurse practitioner, who will provide behavioral health, mental health and substance abuse care.
Springfield pharmacy began offering those services after running into problems multiple times in which patients are discharged with a only few weeks of medications. They might be feeling better, but they have no place to turn for follow-up care nor a way to renew prescriptions, he said.
The one tchange Billups has made is closing the drive-thru window. He said people get better service and care if their pharmacist sees and talks to them, and can build a relationship, so they can physically see when customers are not feeling well.
Working in the business for 35 years, Billups said one of his first jobs was at the Spring Street pharmacy, an independent business that offered one-on-one services. After Spring Street closed, he worked for a large corporation and decided that wasn’t what a pharmacy should be about.
For example, during COVID-19, Springfield Pharmacy stayed open, following all recommended safety precautions, so residents could still get needed medications while others closed.
When vaccines became available, he worked with multiple state legislators, including Williams, to get access to the medications. He held neighborhood clinics, and staff would visit homes of customers to make sure the most vulnerable were protected.
He also is talking about partnering with others to sell their produce and prepared foods at the store. Billups said he wants to join with the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts to see if it can offer a mobile pickup site in his parking lot.
Billups originally considered keeping both Springfield Pharmacy and the new store, but decided it would be too overwhelming. But he is not abandoning his current North End customers: He will open a smaller pharmacy in the Gandara Health Center building at 2155 Main St.
“The vast majority of what we do are deliveries, so there will be no loss of convenience or access for our clients,” he said.
Dining and Cooking