More than a year after Rite Aid shuttered its store at 681 Lancaster Drive NE, the building still has no tenant lined up, even as former Rite Aid locations across Oregon fill with new businesses.
The Salem storefront is one of 19 former Rite Aid sites statewide that remain vacant with no known incoming tenant, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported Monday, Aug. 24. Meanwhile, the corridor is about to lose another anchor: Roth's Fresh Markets announced Friday, Aug. 21, that its store at 702 Lancaster Drive NE will close around Sept. 15, according to the Statesman Journal.
That puts two large retail vacancies within blocks of each other on north Salem's busiest commercial strip.
Rite Aid's collapse left holes statewide
Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in May 2025 and closed all of its more than 1,200 stores nationwide by October 2025. More than 40 of those closures were in Oregon.
Salem lost both its remaining locations: 681 Lancaster Drive NE and 4500 Commercial St. SE.
About a dozen Oregon locations have since found new life. Thirteen others were sold to CVS Pharmacy and reopened under that banner in August and September 2025. No Salem Rite Aid was among the CVS conversions.
Elsewhere in the state, former Rite Aid buildings have attracted Burlington in Hillsboro, Planet Fitness in Eugene, Ross Dress for Less in four cities, Natural Grocers in McMinnville and Grocery Outlet in Silverton, which opened the week of Aug. 24. Salem's 4500 Commercial St. SE location is currently hosting a Spirit Halloween pop-up, a seasonal tenant.
The Lancaster Drive site has drawn no announced activity.
Downtown site finds a tenant
One former Salem Rite Aid is getting a second act. El Torito Supermarket was slated to open at the former Rite Aid at 435 Liberty St. NE in downtown Salem in September 2026, according to a Statesman Journal report from Jan. 2. No update on the project's status has been announced.
Roth's closure compounds the gap
Roth's president Tim Jennings said in an Aug. 21 statement that the Lancaster Drive store was closing after a routine performance assessment found it underperforming. The location, at 702 Lancaster Drive NE, opened in 1965 as the first Salem Roth's.
"In the rare case we decide to close a store, we will work to transfer team members to nearby locations, based on availability and seniority," Jennings said.
Commercial real estate firm Eisenberg Company has marketed the Lancaster Drive corridor as a "thriving" retail hub with high visibility, proximity to Walmart Supercenter and Mega Foods, strong daily traffic and easy Interstate 5 access.
No property owner or leasing agent for 681 Lancaster Drive NE has publicly announced redevelopment plans or a timeline for filling the space.
