Official opening ceremonies for the store are scheduled for 11:30 a.m. today.
Iheme said the neighborhood needed a pharmacy. It had several medical centers and physicians in its orbit, but not a place to fill a prescription or get a wheelchair or walker, he said.
The new location has four employees, including three pharmacists, Iheme said. He projects that the West Third Street location will employ 15 within two years, he said.
The location is the second Zik’s in Dayton. The first opened in January on Salem Avenue, Iheme said.
Iheme is leasing part of the first floor of the Rubenstein Building from Wright Dunbar Inc., a nonprofit focused on reinvigorating the two-block commercial district, said Carol Sampson, director of community development for Wright Dunbar Inc.
Iheme’s venture also will give the neighborhood something it hasn’t had for some time — a pharmacy, Sampson said.
“It’s certainly significant in terms of meeting a community need,” she said, adding that the neighborhood’s aging population will benefit from having a supplier of wheelchairs and other durable medical goods.
Finance Fund, a Columbus-based organization, provided an $83,000 loan for the project. Finance Fund helps find funding and resources for organizations trying to help low- and moderate-income families and communities.
Iheme has been a pharmacist in Ohio since 1992. He also has a company, Nnodum Corp., in Cincinnati, that makes and sells a pain-relief cream.
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