Hold the mayo — and the expansion plans: Dean & DeLuca backs out of new NYC stores

Fancy grocer Dean & DeLuca is canceling its plans to expand in the Big Apple.

Although the eatery had planned to open stores at the Trump Organization’s 40 Wall Street, the Graybar Building at 420 Lexington Avenue and the Meatpacking District’s old Spice Market, the company is no longer going through with any of those plans, according to the New York Post. It will also no longer open a store that was proposed for suburban Dallas.

Pace Development Corp., a private equity firm based in Thailand, bought Dean & DeLuca in 2014 and said it will now focus on its 10 existing stores in the U.S. and the licensed properties it has abroad.

Sources told the Post that the intense competition in the food sector and the high cost of the leases caused the company to end its expansion plans. [NYP] – Eddie Small