SEQUIM — One already busy corner here could become prescription-drug central.

A 17,000-square-foot Rite Aid store with a drive-through window could be under construction by the end of the year at the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and West Washington Street, said Tony Miltenberger of Nicholson Investments.

The Kirkland developer is purchasing part of the 5-acre lot at that intersection, now the site of Sequim Real Estate Inc. and Computer Solutions.

And eventually, that same corner could sport a Walgreens, right across from Rite Aid.

The chain has eyed the site of Fifth Avenue Furniture as a space for one of its drug stores, though a spokeswoman wouldn’t give a time line for purchase or construction.

“We are interested in Sequim,” said Walgreens’ Carol Hively.

“This is just part of our expansion plan . . . what we’re seeing is as baby boomers age, the demand for prescription drugs is just growing dramatically.”

New Rite Aid

The new Rite Aid, which would replace the 14-year-old store in the Safeway shopping center about a block away, would be built after the Sequim Real Estate building is razed.

That is planned to be around November, Miltenberger said Tuesday.

Sequim Real Estate owner Vic Quinet also owns the lot.

He’s selling the property beneath the real estate offices, and keeping the space just west of it.

That parcel, where the Peninsula Daily News and Pacific Coast Escrow have offices, would become the site of a 9,000-square-foot retail building, also known as a strip mall.