STUYVESANT TOWN — Residents of Stuy Town and the owner of a 14th Street Associated supermarket are calling on the complex's new owner to renew the store’s lease or risk leaving residents without a nearby option for grocery shopping.
The Associated supermarket, at 14th Street near First Avenue , is currently under a 15-year lease set to expire in 2017. But when store owner Joe Falzon approached CWCapital last summer to discuss the lease, the landlord informed him they weren't interested in renewing the lease, Falzon said.
A representative of CWCapital did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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With Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village set to change hands, the owners of Associated and its patrons decided now was the time to apply pressure to new owner, Blackstone, to keep the grocery store from closing.
An online petition dedicated to saving the market garnered more than 700 signatures in a single day, and nearly 2,000 people signed a physical petition at the store over the past weekend.
“People are incredibly disturbed that over the course of the decade supermarkets have been disappearing,” said Susan Steinberg, president of the Stuy Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association. “Any other place in the area becomes a long haul if you have bad weather or if you’re older or need help walking.”
If Associated were to close, the nearest comparable option would be Gristedes on First Avenue between 20th and 21st streets, six blocks away from the southern edge of Stuy Town.
Paula Sanders, who lives across the street from the supermarket and has been shopping there since it opened, said she worries about how senior citizens and neighbors with disabilities would get their shopping done if Associated lost its lease.
“It’s not only Stuyvesant Town, everyone who lives around depends very much on the store,” she said. “I love this store, and it would be devastating for it to close. I don’t even know where else we’d go.”
But convenience isn't the only thing that would be lost if the store closes though, according to one Sixth Avenue resident who says its the customer service that keeps her going there even though it's farther away.
“I have a couple of grocery stores near me, but I like this one better because the people are nicer,” said Carolyn Deloatch. “I want to keep coming here.”
A representative of Blackstone did not immediately return a request for comment.