Former Pharmaca Space Available for Lease

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

Following its closure in February, the Sunset Boulevard space where Pharmaca was previously located is now available for lease.

“We just put it on the market about a month ago,” leasing agent Mitchell Stokes, principal with Avison Young, shared with the Palisadian-Post.

The 15150 Sunset Boulevard retail space offers just over 9,000 square feet, according to the listing, which described it as a “prime Pacific Palisades Village retail location,” with “all fixtures included.”

The tenant will be in the same shopping center as Sotheby’s International Realty, Anawalt Palisades Hardware and Ralphs, with “great parking in adjacent large parking lot” and “excellent foot traffic.”

“Ralphs’ lease has restrictions as to what we can put in the space,” Stokes explained. “So it precludes us from leasing, for instance, to any food use, restaurant use, beverage use—those types of tenants.”

Stokes said that there has been interest from potential tenants, but that he has received some calls from restaurateurs. The space also cannot be a fitness use.

“So we’re targeting tenants like other pharmacies,” Stokes added. “Potentially pet supplies and services.”

When asked if there was potential for the space to be divided for more than one tenant—similar to what happened with the former Norris Hardware space, which was divided and leased to Anawalt and Sotheby’s—Stokes said that “at this point, we’re not willing to divide the space.”

Stokes, a resident of Mandeville Canyon, has ties to the Palisades community, including coaching at Palisades Recreation Center, where his kids played baseball, basketball and football, for eight years.

“We’re entrenched there,” Stokes said of the community.

Pharmaca served Pacific Palisades for nearly two decades before its closure, following its purchase by Walgreens. The pharmacy component of the store closed February 9, while the rest of the store remained open through February 25. At the time of its closure, prescription records were transferred to the Walgreens at 1932 Wilshire Boulevard.

The Pharmaca chain was acquired by Medly Health Inc., a digital-pharmacy company, in 2021, which filed for bankruptcy in late 2022 and was purchased earlier this year by Walgreens. Medly offered a “full-service, digital pharmacy,” with “free prescription delivery for all types of medications,” according to its website.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement to acquire the pharmaceutical records and other select assets across 22 Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacies and four Medly Pharmacies nationally,” a representative from Walgreens Corporate Communications told the Palisadian-Post via email on Thursday, February 9.

The Medly Bankruptcy Sale Order was approved on Tuesday, February 7, by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, according to the email. At the time of the sale, Colorado-based Pharmaca operated stores in six western states, according to its website. All locations closed.

Before Pharmaca arrived in the Sunset Boulevard space, it was previously occupied by Bay Pharmacy, which owner Wehiba Kalifa sold to Pharmaca in 2004, as reported by the Post. Bay Pharmacy had roots in the Palisades dating back to 1949, owned by Al Green prior to Kalifa.