Cincinnati-based grocery giant the Kroger Company bought three Greenwich Village retail condominium units at 250-254 Bleecker Street for $20.6 million, according to property records filed with the city Friday.
The retail at the base of the five-story, roughly 22,000-square-foot building is home to Murray’s Cheese and Amy’s Bread and was owned by Murray’s Cheese proprietor Rob Kaufelt.
Since 2008, Murray’s Cheese has an ongoing agreement with Kroger that allows it to operate kiosks in more than 300 Kroger stores nationally. (There are no Kroger stores in New York City.) Now Kaufelt has decided to sell off the New York-based cheesemonger’s brick-and-mortar shop to the publicly traded grocery chain.
Kaufelt moved the flagship store to 250-254 Bleecker Street in 2004, when it previously occupied a smaller space just across the street. Amy’s Bread began leasing space at the new address the same year. In 2012, Kaufelt opened a wine bar at The Nearby 264 Bleecker Street.
Since taking over Murray’s Cheese in 1993, Kaufelt has transformed the more than 75-year-old Greenwich Village establishment into a $250 million a year national enterprise. In a profile last year, Crain’s called Murray’s Cheese the “Apple store of fromage.”
In December, Murray’s Cheese announced its 350th Kroger store location in the U.S.
Representatives for Kroger and Kaufelt did not immediately respond to requests for comment.