Drugstore giant CVS Health Corp. is coming to Colorado Springs with stand-alone locations – bringing more choice for consumers and competition for pharmacies, groceries and convenience stores.

Rhode Island-based CVS plans at least two free-standing retail pharmacies in the Springs, according to documents its representatives have submitted to the city’s Land Use Review Division.

Those documents show CVS plans to construct a 12,900-square-foot pharmacy on the southeast corner of Platte Avenue and Circle Drive in central Colorado Springs, taking over all or a portion of property occupied by the Tower Plaza retail center.

A second, similar-sized CVS would be built southeast of Woodmen Road and Rangewood Drive on the city’s north side.

CVS spokeswoman Stephanie Cunha confirmed via email the chain “will be entering the Colorado Springs market in late 2017.” She declined to comment on how many stores CVS might develop, why it’s coming or whether it’s also locating in other Colorado cities. An online business publication reported in December that CVS has begun buying sites in Denver.

CVS has a presence in the Springs; last year, it paid nearly $2 billion to acquire Target’s nearly 1,700 pharmacies and now has locations inside Target department stores.

But the addition of free-standing pharmacies around the city will pit CVS against rival Walgreens, which dominates the Pikes Peak region with about two dozen locations. Chains such as Rite Aid and Longs have been gone from the local market for years.

At the same time, CVS will go up against Safeway/Albertsons, King Soopers and even Walmart, which have pharmacies inside their stores.

“We’ve gotten to a large enough population where we can certainly accommodate more users in that category,” said John Winsor, a retail specialist with Springs commercial brokerage Olive Real Estate Group. “They’re a good competitor, so I think our market will benefit from having a little bit better selection and choice.”

Like Walgreens, CVS’ retail pharmacies have a little bit of everything. Besides prescriptions and health care services, CVS sells groceries, household goods and health, beauty and personal care items.

“That fits today’s world even a little bit better because they’re essentially a larger convenience store – items that people need on more of a daily basis,” Winsor said. “It’s a great add-on with the pharmaceuticals that you can pick up your milk or your lunch meat, those kinds of things, on a little bit easier basis.”

CVS no doubt will have more than just two locations in the Springs.

“Colorado Springs is not a two-store market for them,” said Patrick Kerscher, a retail specialist with the Springs office of national brokerage CBRE. “You’re not going to come to the market with just two stores.”

And, expect CVS to look for locations near its chief rival; the Woodmen and Rangewood site, for example, is across from a Walgreens.

“When you go into those (other) markets, they are across the street from each other,” Kerscher said. “Everywhere there’s a Walgreens, there’s a CVS.”

CVS’ plans for its Colorado Springs locations, however, aren’t final.

The chain has contracted to purchase the nearly 37,000-square-foot Tower Plaza retail center, said owner Ron Genuario, whose family owns 10 Midas Auto Service Expert Centers along the Front Range. Genuario bought the retail center in 1995.

While CVS wants to buy the entire 2.5-acre site, it’s uncertain whether it would occupy all of the property or if some Tower Plaza retail center businesses would stay, Genuario said. The site includes a multitenant retail building and a handful of stand-alone buildings that house Midas, Flowerama and Short Stop Deluxe Burgers, among others.

Short Stop owner Ted Vong, who owns his building but leases the ground underneath, has operated at Tower Plaza retail center for more than 23 years. His lease expires in March, and Vong said he’s starting to eye possible new locations. But he won’t worry about relocating until the time comes – if it does.

“We’re just looking, because nothing is solid,” he said.

CVS’ site at Woodmen and Rangewood is owned by Springs-based Cook Communications Ministries. Cook officials didn’t return a call.

CVS has more than 9,600 retail pharmacies and 1,100 walk-in medical clinics, according to its website. CVS describes itself as “a leading pharmacy benefits manager with nearly 80 million plan members” and a “dedicated senior pharmacy care business serving more than one million patients per year.”