Red Hook may be losing Fairway — but it won’t be without a major grocery store.
Food Bazaar will be moving into the bankrupt retailer’s sprawling space at the O’Connell Organization’s 480-500 Van Brunt Street, Crain’s reported. Bogopa Enterprises, Food Bazaar’s parent company, is reportedly paying a bargain of $880,000 to take over the space.
A bankruptcy judge is expected to approve the sale Thursday, along with Food Bazaar’s purchase of Fairway’s location in Douglaston, Queens.
The Fairway in Red Hook was one of the neighborhood’s few grocery options for residents. But the store had been struggling with declining sales, an expensive lease of about $1.5 million per year and difficulty of being accessed via public transportation.
After the chain filed for bankruptcy in January, Gregory T. O’Connell, managing partner of the O’Connell Organization, promised that the firm would replace Fairway with a different grocery store.
“If Fairway Market, its current owners, and prospective purchasers deem this location unsuitable, we will immediately seek a grocery operation to take the space,” O’Connell said in a January email to The Real Deal at the time. “Red Hook deserves an affordable market that contributes to its vibrant, supportive, diverse community.”
Other Fairway locations are also set to close. The chain’s location in Harlem closed over the weekend.
Amazon has reportedly eyed a few of Fairway’s other locations across New York and New Jersey. It’s uncertain whether the e-commerce giant would use the properties as distribution centers or grocery stores.
[Crain’s] — Sasha Jones