{"id":439447,"date":"2026-08-21T14:40:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T14:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/439447\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T14:40:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T14:40:31","slug":"excelsiors-iconic-central-drug-store-building-sells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/439447\/","title":{"rendered":"Excelsior\u2019s iconic Central Drug Store building sells"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The former longtime home of <a href=\"https:\/\/missionlocal.org\/2025\/06\/as-116-year-old-central-drug-store-in-sfs-excelsior-prepares-to-close-memories-abound\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Central Drug Store<\/a> \u2014 a 117-year-old independent pharmacy in the Excelsior located at 4494 Mission St. at Santa Rosa Avenue that permanently <a href=\"https:\/\/missionlocal.org\/2025\/06\/sf-excelsior-central-drug-store-close-owner-retire\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">closed<\/a> last July \u2014 has been sold.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new owners, Markopulos Fotiu and Silvi Palloj, have been running a plumbing business called <a href=\"https:\/\/marcopolo-plumbing.com\/about-us\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marco Polo Plumbing<\/a> for the past 15 years out of the city of San Bruno, providing services to the greater San Francisco Bay Area.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fotiu and Palloj made the purchase in June 2026, according to city records. A <a href=\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/4484-mission-street-new-permit.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">July 1 building permit<\/a>, which has already been approved, shows that Fotiu and Palloj recently changed the address for the storefront from 4494 Mission St. to 10 Santa Rosa Ave. \u201cOwner has indicated new office space will be constructed (Marco Polo Plumbing),\u201d the permit reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fotiu and Palloj took over the building from the Tonelli family, which had owned the property. The building had housed the Central Drug Store since 1908 and was added to the city\u2019s list of legacy businesses in 2021. The Tonellis bought the pharmacy from the Divencenzi family in 1965. Jerry Tonelli <a href=\"https:\/\/missionlocal.org\/2025\/06\/as-116-year-old-central-drug-store-in-sfs-excelsior-prepares-to-close-memories-abound\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">made the decision<\/a> to close the family business last summer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since then, Central Drug Store\u2019s iconic red neon sign has been removed from its black marble storefront. What remains is a cement block in the storefront\u2019s bottom right corner, painted with red letters reading \u201cCENTRAL DRUG STORE EST. 1908,\u201d set among the navy blue tiles.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"585\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_6686-853x640.jpg\" alt=\"Blue-tiled wall with a hand-painted sign reading \u201cCENTRAL DRUG STORE EST 1908\u201d in red and white letters, next to a window with closed blinds.\" class=\"wp-image-866605\"  \/>The storefront of the building, which once housed Central Drug Store, captured on July 29, 2026. Photo by Xueer Lu.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The city\u2019s Office of Small Business confirmed that there is \u201cno rule that the 4494 Mission Street would need to remain a pharmacy,\u201d according Michelle Lynch Reynolds, the office\u2019s program and communications manager. It is, however, still registered as a \u201cretail sales\u201d space at both addresses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When asked about the permit to construct new office space, Fotiu, who goes by Marco, said he can\u2019t share any plans about the building just yet, and suggested checking back in a few months.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe don\u2019t know yet,\u201d Fotiu said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t made a decision what it is gonna be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With so much that\u2019s still up in the air, one thing\u2019s for certain: This marks a homecoming. \u201cWe know the area,\u201d Fotiu said. \u201cGrew up in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former longtime home of Central Drug Store \u2014 a 117-year-old independent pharmacy in the Excelsior located at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[43500,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-439447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-excelsior","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}