Brand New Rosslyn Evergreen Pharmacy!
by Scott A. Sumner
It's been seven years since Devon Meyers and Henry Tempelman opened a pharmacy in Rosslyn. Evergreen Pharmacy had begun in Kakabeka in a rental location and a few years ago opened their own brand new building there. Today they have just opened their second new 6400 square foot building in Rosslyn!
“ We first opened our pharmacy in the basement of Dr. Bruce's Rosslyn dental office seven years ago. It wasn't the perfect space, with the stairs and the small area, but it was enough to get our feet under us and establish a market and service that was well utilized by the community,” noted Henry Tempelman, owner Evergreen Pharmacy. “We filled a gap in healthcare and personable health care which is what we strive to provide. By that I mean we get to know people by name, know them and their families and be a trusted health professional for them to help work and manage their health care medications.”
“So seven years ago we made that space work, despite it's limitations, and are excited this opportunity came up to expand our services to kinda meet the new scope of pharmacists with minor ailment prescribing,vaccine administration and a variety of other services. The expanded space is for our staff and clientele.” said Henry.
The Evergreen space previously in Rosslyn was 300 to 400 square feet and the new entire building is 6400 square feet. The pharmacy unit is around 4000 square feet so a ten fold increase over their previous location in Rosslyn. It includes things like a larger lunch room for their staff, more bathrooms and space in the dispensary so they are not tripping over each other. There are also more counselling rooms, with their own computers and scanners to make it more efficient.“ We have a 1500 square foot unit available here to rent in the building as well with good visibility from Hwy 130 and parking. We would love to have a complimentary business, whether it be some kind of clinic or shared clinic space. In Kakabeka at the Northwest Clinic there in our building we have footcare nurses, nurse practitioners, doctors and social workers where we can refer back and forth. We want to get the right fit and someone that shares our vision on care management in this space.”said Henry.
“ When you are starting a business from the ground up you usually start working yourself so people become familiar with you. For the first few years we couldn't bring on more pharmacists or assistants.We did a lot of the work ourselves so that is how you kinda get deep into the community. We got to know many of our patients very well in terms of their health care status as well as families.” said Devon Meyers, owner of Evergreen Pharmacy. “ The small communities that we serve- Rosslyn, Slate River, Neebing, Stanley and Murillo rely on word of mouth a lot so if you do a good job it gets mentioned at Thanksgiving dinner or church and people slowly trust you. At the beginning is was hard to get people to move from a large Shoppers say, to a basement pharmacy, but our ability to put out a pretty good service over time led to us being able to grow.”
“When we first started our pharmacy here in Rosslyn, we went door to door knocking on households down Rosslyn Road and all the side roads, Broadway and so on to let people know we are here. We had on a suit and tie with a little bag to get people to choose our pharmacy. We got some transfers from that including even some years later. Once we get organized here in the new building we will probably do door knocking again.” smiled Henry!
The new Evergreen Pharmacy also has the Early Refill Cafe which is kind of a play on a pharmacy industry and your early fill of prescriptions. It was little bit of a side project in their first building in Kakabeka where they have a cafe as well.
“ Devon and I took a barista course in Vancouver when we started to get into this, to buy the right equipment and learn how to make a good coffee. It better be good or people won't come back right. We had many questions about coffee!”noted Henry.
The new Evergreen Rosslyn pharmacy opened October 11th and it took about a year to complete the building. They began last fall with clearing the lot and placing fill.
Evergreen Rosslyn Pharmacy has it's entrance off the Whitewater Golf Course street King George's Park Drive.
“ The MTO said when we purchased this property, we weren't allowed to directly access the property from Hwy 130 as their was King George's Park Drive and Gardner Road entrances close by. They only allow so many entrances per several hundred meters due to traffic and other considerations. Our current entrance, King George's Park Drive, also had to be approved by the MTO, as we are near the Hwy. Over time it will develop more out here and people will get used to it. There could be more development next to us.” noted Henry.
The second build for Evergreen Pharmacy had some higher costs.“ Inflation has created a little higher costs. Going through the process of the first build in Kakabeka allowed us to be more comfortable in this Rosslyn build. For example our dispensary here is very similar to Kakabeka. The idea was for the staff to feel comfortable working in both locations. Our contractor was great and worked with us as a team.” said Devon.
Evergreen do a have a new pharmacist coming on staff this November for a total of 6 now, with 25 to 30 staff in total. We have been getting many strong applicants applying who like our good energy here noted Devon.
Devon and Henry, owners of Evergreen Pharmacy, first met as teenagers in Thunder Bay both working in the summers at the City of Thunder Bay and also played hockey together here and at University of Toronto where they trained to become pharmacists. To become a pharmacist you need a minimum of two years of university prerequisites or a university degree and then 4 years of the pharmacy program.
The new building was opened just in time for Evergreen Pharmacy for a busy period.“ It is a busy time right now with the flu and covid vaccines, but we hope to open the cafe by the end of the month. We also will have some unique giftwear here by Christmas with some local gifts and ideas including pottery, hot sauces etc.We love supporting the local community including the Thunder City Dirt Race Track, local curlers and the Kam River Walleye hockey team. We also play golf regularly at Whitewater.” said Devon.
The new Evergreeen Rosslyn Pharmacy and it's expanded space have allowed some new automation technology for blister packs, with several hundred patients at each store that use that service.“ It is very labour intensive to build them so there are these machines now that you program and it will pickup the medication and drop them into each bubble and scan them taking pictures to make sure it is right. It is not the last line of defense or checking but helps us to use more of our time for patient or clinics interactions.We can then focus on the patient relationship more which is our competitive advantage.” said Henry.
The family pharmacist can play an important role in health care especially with the current large doctor shortage. In the rural areas this is especially very important.“ When we first started out we weren't sure exactly where it will take you.A very important part of what Henry and I do now is to create a pharmacy that opens space for our clinicians to work properly. That means investing in space and machines that allows our staff to do their job to the fullest and get this pharmacy to where we think it can go.”
Be sure to check out this beautiful new pharmacy serving rural Thunder Bay!
Ken Perrier, Owner Per Hol Construction was the general contractor for Evergreen Pharmacy Rosslyn as well as the Kakabeka location.I asked him some questions about the project and it's progression.
“ There was a lot of excavation and fill in to the site beginning in >November 2023 and we started forming in December. We did a perimeter pour and put the shell up. The building is 6400 square feet with the pharmacy and an available rental space.The Kakabeka building is a little bit biggerwith two tenants there.”
“MTO wouldn't allow a direct entrance off Hwy 130 so we did the entrance off the King George's Park Drive road. I think this entrance will be fine. Once someone learns how to get to the pharmacy they will >know forever.”
“ The building is wood frame with a Butler metal standing roof, brick facade on the bottom and metal siding.”
“ There is a cafe at the front that offers a nice cup of coffee and pastries. The two pharmacies are similar in size.”
“ The Rosslyn building went well. Devon and Henry are great guys to deal with and it moved along very well. We are very happy with it. We put a big push on right at the end to get everything done including landscaping and paving so they could open on October 12th. We are just waiting on our signage to come by the end of October.
“ Henry and Devon are very community orientated and I think it will be a good thing for the Rosslyn Village and area, where I have lived all my life.”
