5 Pharmacy and Convenience Store Brands That Favor Freestanding Ground Leases

Freestanding pharmacy and convenience stores have long been among New England's most familiar ground-lease tenants. Corner parcels with drive-thru windows, fuel canopies, and high traffic counts still attract operators that want to control the building while leasing the land. The competitive map has changed, though. Rite Aid completed the closure of its remaining stores in 2025 after a second bankruptcy and asset sales, according to CNN Business. Walgreens went private under Sycamore Partners in August 2025 and has continued selective store closures, though company-related reporting in 2026 described a slower closure pace than earlier multi-year plans. Neither chain is treated below as an expansion story.

This post focuses on five pharmacy and convenience brands that still show a documented preference for freestanding sites and, in several cases, absolute net or ground leases in New England.

CVS Pharmacy

CVS Health, headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, remains the clearest national pharmacy ground-lease tenant active across New England. Multiple Massachusetts assets have been marketed as absolute NNN ground leases. ARC, Inc. has described the CVS at 70 West State Street in Granby, Massachusetts, as a ground lease at the signalized intersection of Route 202 and Pleasant Street; materials state CVS signed a 20-year ground lease in 2012 with five percent bumps every five years in the initial term and ten percent bumps in option years.

Horvath & Tremblay has marketed a CVS ground lease at Lincoln Avenue in Haverhill, Massachusetts, citing more than 17 years remaining on an absolute NNN ground lease with five five-year renewal options, as a pad within a Market Basket-anchored plaza. Columbia Net Lease Ventures has described a Norton, Massachusetts, CVS ground lease extending to January 31, 2041, with multiple renewal options on an absolute NNN basis. Matthews offering materials for a Wayland, Massachusetts, CVS cited a 2017 drive-thru prototype on about 2.09 acres, corporate guarantee by CVS Health, absolute NNN ground lease terms, and roughly 17 years remaining on the base term.

CVS's retail network still numbers in the thousands of U.S. pharmacies. For landowners, the verified pattern in Massachusetts is long absolute ground leases on freestanding or pad sites with drive-thru where local rules allow. Format and rent still require underwriting store-by-store; corporate credit alone does not replace trade-area and remaining-term analysis.

Cumberland Farms

Cumberland Farms is a New England-rooted convenience and fuel brand with hundreds of stores in the region. Freestanding Cumberland Farms sites have traded as long-term net-lease investments. Horvath & Tremblay reported the sale of a newly constructed Cumberland Farms in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, with a 20-year lease structure and multi-period options and escalations described in contemporaneous coverage. The firm also reported the sale of a freestanding Cumberland Farms at 710 Oak Street in Brockton, Massachusetts, describing a 20-year ground lease with rent increases in later years and at option periods.

Those transactions show the brand's historical willingness to occupy freestanding, fuel-oriented sites under long ground or absolute net leases. Cumberland Farms stores typically need enough land for a canopy, tanks (where applicable), parking, and a convenience building - often one acre or more on signalized corners. For landowners comparing pharmacy pads to c-store pads, Cumberland Farms remains a New England-native demand source with a public track record of freestanding net leases.

7-Eleven

7-Eleven continues to appear in New England as a freestanding absolute NNN ground-lease tenant. NNN Marketplace and related broker materials have listed 7-Eleven at 70 Copeland Drive in Mansfield, Massachusetts, as an absolute NNN ground lease. Listing details cited a ground lease running into 2041 with three five-year extension options and ten percent rent increases during the initial term and options. Ocean Block Capital publicly noted acquiring the Mansfield 7-Eleven in June 2023.

7-Eleven's freestanding format in suburban New England usually pairs a convenience store with strong arterial frontage and, where allowed, fuel. Ground-lease economics resemble other credit c-store deals: long remaining term, tenant responsibility for operating expenses, and scheduled bumps. Mansfield's Copeland Drive corridor is a concrete local example that investors and landowners can point to when evaluating similar pads.

Nouria

Nouria, a Worcester, Massachusetts-based convenience, fuel, and car-wash operator, publishes explicit real estate criteria that include ground leases. The company's real estate page states it acquires, builds, and supplies new locations for fuel, convenience stores, co-brands, food service, and car washes across Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and additional Mid-Atlantic states. Acquisition methods listed include purchase, ground lease, build-to-suit, or modified build-to-suit. Parcel sizes range from a minimum of 0.75 acre to 30 acres, with preference for corners, signalized intersections, highway proximity, visibility, and traffic over 15,000 vehicles per day.

Nouria-related investment materials have also described a Golden Nozzle car wash in Leominster, Massachusetts, on a 20-year absolute net ground lease on Main Street with corporate guarantee and multi-year options - evidence that Nouria-branded real estate uses ground leases in Massachusetts beyond traditional c-stores alone. For landowners, Nouria's published criteria make the brand one of the more transparent New England seekers of ground-lease fuel and convenience sites.

Global Partners / Alltown

Global Partners LP, based in Newton, Massachusetts, owns, leases, and supplies a large East Coast retail fuel and convenience network, including Alltown and Alltown Fresh branded sites. The company's real estate page states interest in properties of at least one acre, ideally 1.5 or more acres, with 200-plus feet of frontage, far-corner signalized positions, at least 4,800 buildable square feet, 30-plus parking spaces including EV, and traffic of at least 15,000 vehicles per day. Global Partners also describes an integrated real estate and construction team that acquires and develops high-traffic retail locations.

Project coverage from CM&B has documented ground-up Alltown Fresh work in Framingham, Massachusetts, including a roughly 5,000-square-foot redevelopment with fueling, diesel, EV charging, and food service. That freestanding, multi-amenity format matches the acreage and frontage criteria Global Partners publishes. Landowners with 1-2 acre arterial corners zoned for gasoline retail are the practical fit.

Reading the current pharmacy and c-store map

As of October 2026, freestanding pharmacy and convenience demand in New England is not a simple "all chains are expanding" story. CVS still anchors many absolute ground leases. Regional c-store and fuel operators - Cumberland Farms, 7-Eleven, Nouria, and Global Partners/Alltown - continue to seek or occupy freestanding pads under long net structures. Rite Aid is gone from the operating landscape after its 2025 liquidation. Walgreens remains a large private pharmacy retailer with an extensive freestanding legacy inventory and ongoing store optimization, not a brand to present as a net new ground-lease growth engine without deal-specific confirmation.

Landowners comparing offers should focus on remaining term, options, rent bumps, environmental and tank liability on fuel sites, and whether the tenant is corporate or franchisee-guaranteed.

To review freestanding pharmacy and convenience parcels on the market, browse current NECPE listings. A NECPE member broker can help weigh which of these operators fit a given New England site.