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The Messenger-Inquirer Keith Larence Business Column: Keith Larence, Business

Posted on: Sunday, 19 February 2006, 06:00 CST

By Keith Lawrence, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

Feb. 19--Looks like Target is adding a pharmacy to its Owensboro store.

Plans filed with the Owensboro Metropolitan Planning Commission show a pharmacy being built on the front of the store at 5151 Frederica St.

Company officials still haven't announced their plans for the local store.

But last month, they picked up a building permit for a $3.8 million expansion.

Those plans showed a 20,000-square-foot addition on the north side of the store, including the former H&R Block location in an adjacent building.

The plans for the pharmacy -- south of the Target entrance -- are in addition to that work.

-- Expect traffic jams on Kentucky 54 this week.

Bob Evans Farms will open its first Owensboro restaurant -- 3123 Kentucky 54 -- at 6 a.m. Monday.

That's right in front of Wal-Mart.

Hours are 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.

The 155-seat restaurant -- the first national chain to build its first Owensboro location on Kentucky 54 -- has 110 employees, the company says.

The restaurant, which offers carryout, has a gift shop, Corner Cupboard, in the lobby.

Kar Thuranira is the general manager.

Bob Evans now has 583 restaurants in 19 states, the company says.

-- A sign in front of Tumbleweed Southwest Grill, 5257 Frederica St., says that restaurant will reopen at 11 a.m. Feb. 27.

The restaurant has been closed for renovations since a Dec. 1 fire that damaged its roof and kitchen.

-- Federated Department Stores says it will spend more than $100 million to "shift inventories, expand private labels and renovate stores" in a bid to improve sales at the 375 locations it bought from May Department Stores last year.

That includes the Famous-Barr store in Owensboro's Towne Square Mall, which is scheduled to become a Macy's in September.

The Macy's in Wesleyan Park Plaza is closing.

The Cincinnati Business Courier reported last week that the changes will involve the rollout of an estimated $2 billion worth of Macy's private labels to the former May stores, as well as the introduction of some of May's brands to Macy's stores.

Forty-five of the former May stores also will get price checkers, shopping carts and more spacious dressing rooms, the publication reported.

-- Holiday World & Splashin' Safari will hire a record 1,500 people this summer for jobs at that Spencer County, Ind., theme park.

Job fairs are scheduled at the park today from 10 a.m. to noon; Tuesday from 1 to 5 p.m.; Thursday from 1 to 5 p.m.; and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.

For information, call (812) 937-5252 or check the park's Web site -- www.holidayworld.com.

-- Gas prices in Owensboro dipped below the $2 mark last week.

That's good news.

But the American Automobile Association says we were paying an average of $1.78 a gallon here at this time last year.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

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Source: Messenger-Inquirer

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