The busy Chick-fil-A location on Parkway East in Roebuck closed on June 19 and since then has been completely demolished.

It will return, however. “We’ll be back,” the store said on its Facebook page. “Better than ever!”

Plans call for the Chick-fil-A to be rebuilt with a more accommodating drive-through set-up.

The adjacent Walgreens, which shared a parking lot with the Chick-fil-A, closed in March and won’t reopen.

Chick-fil-A Inc. bought that Walgreen’s property at 9345 Parkway East last year for $625,000 from Waltrust Properties Inc., according to Jefferson County tax records.

A sign on the door at Walgreen’s said the store closed March 20 and all prescriptions were transferred to the CVS Pharmacy at 220 Gadsden Highway.

Walgreen’s announced this year it was closing 1,200 locations nationwide, 500 of them by this year, but none were listed as closing in Alabama. Before the pandemic hit in 2020, the Roebuck Walgreen’s operated with its pharmacy open 24 hours a day. After the pandemic, hours were scaled back.

The former Walgreen’s parking lot will give Chick-fil-A more room to accommodate the long lines that sometimes backed up onto a neighboring street.

Several Chick-fil-A’s in the region underwent similar tear-downs or renovations in recent years, including the Trussville location that has since reopened with a more efficient set of drive-through lanes. The employees who worked at the Roebuck location have transferred to work at the remodeled Chick-fil-A in Trussville at Interstate 459 Exit 141

Although Chick-fil-A’s entire Roebuck building was demolished and is now a pile of rubble, the large sign facing Parkway East stayed. It carries the message: “Closed for remodel. Follow on Facebook.”