Baltimore’s Park Heights hit hard as pharmacy closures spread statewide

Park Heights, ZIP code 21215, has become the hardest-hit corner of Maryland’s pharmacy map, with six closures in a neighborhood already known for long stretches between essentials. More than 525,000 Marylanders now live in pharmacy shortage areas, and the state has lost a net 59 access points, leaving more families to pay for rides, spend extra time on the road and risk delays in getting medications filled.

The squeeze is no longer just a rural problem. In Maryland, 70.3% of shortage areas are in urban communities and 38.1% are considered low-income. In cities, a pharmacy shortage can mean being more than a half-mile from the nearest pharmacy if you do not have a car. That is a very different reality from the national average, where Americans live within five miles of a pharmacy. Magaly Rodriguez de Bittner, associate dean at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, has warned that some residents are now traveling 10 to 15 miles for prescriptions, a distance that can turn a simple refill into an all-day errand.

That matters in Park Heights because the neighborhood is not a small pocket on Baltimore’s edge. It is one of the city’s oldest and largest neighborhoods, about 10 miles from downtown Baltimore and within two miles of the Baltimore County line. Depending on the count, Park Heights covers 12 neighborhoods and about 1,500 acres, with an estimated 30,000 residents. It was once a commercial hub with shops, restaurants, movie theaters and a branch library, but it has also carried decades of disinvestment and vacancies. The Baltimore City Planning Commission adopted the Park Heights Master Plan in 2006, and the city continued neighborhood planning conversations at the Delta Community Center on Springhill Avenue on July 20, 2023.

The closures in 21215 are part of a wider national wave. Rite Aid’s bankruptcy led to the shutdown of its remaining stores, CVS has closed 270 stores nationwide as part of restructuring, and as many as 326 pharmacy storefronts closed across the country between December 19, 2024, and March 2025, including 237 independent pharmacies. Analysts and advocates have pointed to low reimbursement rates, low dispensing fees and chain restructurings as major pressure points, and Maryland has also seen Walgreens and Rite Aid locations disappear.

For Park Heights, the loss lands just as the Pimlico corridor is headed into a major rebuild tied to the 150th Preakness Stakes. The Maryland Stadium Authority says the new Pimlico project is a $400 million state-funded facility expected to support about 500 jobs and bring more than 100 racing days a year to the area. That redevelopment could bring foot traffic and investment, but pharmacy access still needs its own fix. Mobile pharmacies and delivery can help with immediate gaps, clinic-based dispensing can keep refills moving, and incentives for operators may be the only realistic way to restore a permanent neighborhood storefront in 21215.