Category: Openings & Closings

From NY Post:

Downtown Manhattan is about to get a big dose of upstate New York.

Almost exactly two years after the Rochester-based grocery giant Wegmans announced it would debut its first-ever Manhattan location in the former Kmart on Astor Place during the second half of 2023, now comes word of its specific opening date. And, just like the company said in 2021, it’s right on target.

The two-level, 87,500-square-foot store — located in the 1907-built 770 Broadway — will open for business on Oct. 18 at 9 a.m., according to a company release.

It’s the first Wegmans location in Manhattan, but not the first within city limits.

“We know our customers can’t wait to come see what we have in store and our employees have been training, in some cases, for over a year to get ready for this day,” says store manager Matt Dailor in the release. “Wegmans is a celebration of food and people, and we can’t wait to open the doors on October 18 to our community here in the East Village.”

On Oct. 27, 2019, almost exactly four years before the opening of this Astor Place spread, Wegmans made its Big Apple debut across the East River in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which remains open.

The bulk of Wegmans locations are in New York State — spanning from Buffalo to a forthcoming store in Long Island’s Suffolk County — with plenty of others in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Virginia and North Carolina. Future stores, according to the Wegmans website, will include one in Norwalk, Connecticut — which will be the first to open in that state.

The grand opening of the Astor Place behemoth comes full circle after summer 2021 saw speculation that Wegmans would move into the former Kmart, which shut abruptly in July 2021. Published reports, as well as Reddit chatter, said the space would be replaced by a “first-class regional grocer,” leading many curious minds to offer their guesses of Wegmans, Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s.

What customers can expect: fresh sushi, sandwiches, pizza and even Mediterranean bites from the “Mezze” section. What’s more, in the first half of 2024, visitors will also have an on-site dining room with a sushi bar, as well as a Champagne and oyster bar.

Similar to Trader Joe’s, Wegmans has long attracted a cult following — particularly among natives of Western and Central New York who grew up chowing down on its fresh, and reasonably priced, food.88

The loyalty was so strong for some upstate natives that, despite living in New York City, they’d drive 330 miles home to Rochester to load up on several months worth of groceries to cart back to Manhattan. Others deliberately rented apartments or bought homes near the closest Wegmans stores — and not just for breezy shopping, but also for nostalgia.

Longtime customer favorites include the brand’s ginger-flavored sparkling water, the cave-ripened Cremeux de Bourgogne cheese, chocolate-dipped chocolate chip cookies that sandwich flavored buttercream frosting and, this being an upstate brand, its Buffalo wings.

The smoke shop that was located at 346 West 52nd Street in Hell’s Kitchen recently closed. The store is now vacant.

From W42ST.NYC:

There were signs of change at 606 9th Avenue (between W43rd/W44th Street) this week, where a smoke shop vanished this week after a court case between landlords and Citi Deli Corp — more recently known as Milky Way Exotics — was decided in favor of the landlords this January. The building’s owners filed suit against the tenants for defaulting on their lease terms in December 2022, alleging that Citi Deli Corp “had impermissibly altered the use of the premises by ‘including the sale of smoking supplies,’ thereby ‘changing the nature of the retail sales’ from a grocery/convenience store into a ‘smoke shop.’” 

The owners of Citi Deli Corp argued that while they were selling unlicensed smoking-related products, they had continued ‘to stock and sell grocery store items and lightly prepared foodstuffs’… in compliance with the lease.” Photos of the store renamed as Milky Way Exotics convinced officials otherwise, and the “deli” was ordered to vacate. According to local sources, the sheriff’s office raided the establishment on April 10, although the shop reopened April 11 and remained in business until this week. W42ST has reached out to the plaintiffs for further comment on the case and will update if we hear back.

The brand-new ground-floor LIDL grocery store plans to work with Hire NYC to hire locals when it opens in the early months of 2026. Numerous employment opportunities will be generated by the store for the neighborhood. Lidl, which has its headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, has now signed a second lease in Manhattan. The community responded favorably to its February 2022 debut in Harlem. The store will provide value, a straightforward and effective shopping experience, as well as sections for meats, seafood, fresh produce, flowers, and other daily grocery essentials. On the east coast, Lidl runs more than 170 stores, including 25 in New York State. At the moment, Lidl has locations in Astoria, Queens, Staten Island, and Harlem in New York City.

 “MAG Partners and Lidl U.S. announced a lease for an approximately 23,000-square-foot grocery store at 335 Eighth Avenue, a mixed-income apartment building being developed within the Penn South campus, an affordable housing cooperative located in the Chelsea community of Manhattan, N.Y.

30% of the 188 apartments in the residential building are designated for low- and middle-income New Yorkers as part of the Affordable NY Program. Construction is anticipated to start in the third quarter of 2023, with on-site demolition set to start in May.

From Supermarketnews.com (Lidl Will Open Second Grocery Store in Manhattan, 2023)

The local pizza chain Little Italy has opened a new location at 671 8th Avenue next to the Port Authority bus terminal. They join Mc Donald’s, 7-11, Smashburger and Chick-fil-A in the landmarked building that formerly included Duane Reade and Show World.

From the NY Post:

This 130-year-old business’s Manhattan storefront is parma-gone and mozzarel-ocating to the Garden State. 

Alleva Dairy’s longtime 188 Grand St. home may be gor-gone-zola, but the over-one-century-old Italian grocer isn’t letting the grate become the enemy of the good. Instead of throwing in the cheesecloth, they’re up and moving to New Jersey. 

“After serious consideration, Alleva Dairy at 188 Grand Street will close on Wednesday, March 1 at 6 P.M.,” said owner Karen King, who bought the fromage factory with her late husband John “Cha Cha” Ciarcia — a friend of Tony Danza and descendent of Alleva’s founding family — in 2014. “I am so thankful for the support I have received from my devoted customers, neighbors, the news media and strangers from across the country.” 

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Nothing gouda can stay in New York, it seems, as Alleva — which opened in 1892 and is billed as the nation’s oldest cheese store — is now banking on doing feta beyond the boroughs.

“Thanks to the vision, generosity and commitment of businessman and developer, Jack Morris, President and CEO, of Edgewood Properties, Alleva Dairy will be opening a 3,700-square-foot store at 9 Polito Ave. in Lyndhurst, NJ,” King continued, adding that “One thing is certain, Alleva Dairy will continue and will be bigger and better than before.”

McDonald’s has signed a lease at the former Duane Reade location on the northwest corner of West 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue at 681 Eight Avenue. The store is currently being built out. This new location is across the street from the Five Below and Target stores on West 4McDonald’s Moves into Former Duane Reade at W. 42nd and Eighth Avenue.