Harlem Fairway Market To Close After Sale Falls Through: Report

HARLEM, NY — The Harlem location of Fairway Market will close soon after a deal to buy the grocery store from its bankrupt parent company fell through, according to reports and public filings.

The 12th Avenue and West 132nd Street supermarket is expected to close as soon as the end of the month, Crain's New York Business first reported. Fairway announced that the store's 165 workers will be laid off when the location closes, according to a recently-amended WARN notice filed with the state Department of Labor.

Fairway declared bankruptcy in January and struck a deal with Village Super Market — parent company of the Shoprite grocery store chain — to sell five of its New York City locations. The $70 million deal included Fairway's Upper West Side flagship and its Harlem, Chelsea, Kips Bay and Upper East Side stores. The deal for the Harlem location fell through, but other stores are expected to remain open Crain's reported.

In May, Fairway announce it transferred ownership of five New York City locations to Village Super Markets. This includes locations in the Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Chelsea, Kips Bay and Pelham.

Fairway was founded by the Glickberg family in the 1930s and remained under the family's stewardship until a controlling share of the business was bought by venture capital firm Sterling Investment Partners in 2007.

January's declaration was Fairway's second Chapter 11 filed in four years. The company dug itself out of Chapter 11 proceedings in 2016 by borrowing money and shifting ownership from Sterling Investment Partners to a consortium led by Blackstone's GSO Capital Partners.