The sign still says “Wherehouse Music,” and the interior is mostly empty, but CVS/pharmacy developers said Tuesday that their downtown store still is scheduled to open by the late winter or early spring.

Interior construction at the store, 1711 Sherman Ave., has not yet begun because CVS does not have a building permit, said Walter Hallen, plans examiner for the Evanston Building Division.

CVS already applied for a permit but has to respond to several minor complaints from the city in order to receive it, Hallen said.

The company is waiting to finalize a building plan before reapplying for the permit, said John Wojtila, project manager for Zaremba Group LLC, the developer of the project for CVS.

The final building plan has been held up while the developers wait for an agency to test the strength of the steel and concrete in the building, Wojtila said. He said they need to know the strength of the materials to know what kind of changes they can make to the interior of the store.

“(Testing agency workers) should be in there next week, if they haven’t been in there already,” Wojtila said. “They could be in there right now.”

CVS also is waiting on approval from the Sign Review and Appeals Board, which will meet Nov. 13. Wojtila said he does not expect any trouble in getting their signs approved.

Wojtila said he hopes to start construction in early December and finish in about three months, meaning the store should open in March.

He said the project will convert the site into a standard CVS store.

“Interior-wise, we’re just changing it so it’s their carpeting, their ceiling lights, their wall panels,” Wojtila said.

The major exterior work involves moving the door to the south end of the site, next to Barnes & Noble, and redesigning the windows, Wojtila said.

The CVS project initially was delayed as the store worked to come to an agreement with the city’s Site Plan and Appearance Review Board. The board objected to CVS’s original proposal to cover the windows with store advertising. A compromise was reached in late September that involved turning the windows into display cases similar to the famous windows at Marshall Field’s department store.

The windows will feature seasonal displays and showcase CVS merchandise, said Michele Dodd, regional director for CVS. The display windows are not found in any other CVS store.

“This is something special for Evanston,” Dodd told The Daily in September.