The recently closed Astor Place Kmart will be replaced by Wegmans, a regional grocery chain that originated in Rochester, New York.
Wegmans Food Markets aims to open the store at Vornado Realty Trust’s 770 Broadway in the second half of 2023, Wegmans and Vornado announced.
It will be the second Wegmans in New York City, following the opening of its first store in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in October 2019.
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“We are so excited to bring Wegmans to Manhattan. This is something we’ve been dreaming about and working toward for a long time,” said Colleen Wegman, president and CEO of Wegmans Food Markets, in a statement.
Wegmans signed a 30-year lease to occupy about 82,000 square feet on the street and lower levels, according to the companies. Ripco Real Estate brokered the deal.
Nicole Wegman, Danny Wegman and Colleen Wegman
The family-owned grocer celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2016. It has been slowly but surely expanding up and down the East Coast, opening a few stores a year, and now has 106 in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts and North Carolina, according to the company.
Manhattan’s last-standing Kmart abruptly closed on July 11 after landlord Vornado Realty Trust reached an agreement with Kmart parent Transformco to terminate its long-term, triple-net lease in order to bring in a “first-class regional grocer,” sources familiar with the matter told The Real Deal at the time.