The Fruth Pharmacy location in Belpre officially closed on May 15. The site is now available for development. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

BELPRE — The face of Belpre is changing, the mayor said Friday as a local gas station is reconfiguring its site and another local pharmacy is shutting its doors.

The Go Mart at the corner of Washington Boulevard and Main Street is renovating its entire site while the Fruth Pharmacy on Washington Boulevard is closing, Belpre Mayor Susan Abdella said Friday.

Crews have been at the site of the Go Mart for the past few days tearing out the structures and the gas pumps. Abdella said they are redoing the whole site and will include a new larger main building.

“They have their permits and are in the process of renovating that whole site,” she said. “It will be a bigger and more up-to-date building.

“It will be a whole new updated site that will look fabulous when you come into Belpre.”

The Go Mart at the corner of Washington Boulevard and Main Street in Belpre is undergoing renovations that will reconfigure the site and include a larger storefront. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

A spokesman at Go Mart’s corporate office in Gassaway, W.Va., confirmed that the site is being redone and will include a larger storefront. He did not have any further details and the people who had more detailed information about what was planned were not in the office on Friday.

People were loading items onto a trailer outside of Fruth on Friday afternoon. A sign on the door said the location was closed as of May 15. Any prescriptions would be handled through the Kroger pharmacy.

Abdella confirmed the location was closing and the closing was announced on social media earlier in the week.

A message was left at Fruth’s Corporate office in Point Pleasant, W.Va., seeking further comment. The message was not returned by press time.

Right now, the Fruth site is available for development, Abdella said.

The city’s economic team will be getting together early next week to start looking at how they “see the face of Belpre changing,” she said.

“What are we missing in our retail and commercial industries so we can start looking for businesses that we can recruit,” she said.

With the Women’s and Children’s Hospital coming to the west end of town as well as the continued growth at the Memorial Medical Complex, officials are looking at what is available and what is needed. The site of the former Rite Aid pharmacy across the street from Go Mart is also available for development.

“We need to start looking at what would best fit in our market and what would fill our gaps and we will recruit for that,” Abdella said.

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com