Fairway Supermarkets Approaching Bankruptcy, Report Says

PELHAM, NY — New York City-based supermarket chain Fairway is approaching another bout with bankruptcy, according to reports. The supermarket company may be forced to declare bankruptcy, the New York Post reported. That could result in the closure of its network of 14 stores including in Pelham.

Sources with information on the company's financial situation told the Post "this could be a liquidation instead of a reorganization."

The Fairway supermarket in Nanuet closed in September, an early victim of the grocery company's woes because it was a victim of the national retail crisis being played out locally at the Shops at Nanuet. SEE: Fairway Market Closing In Nanuet

The Shops at Nanuet opened in 2013. The 65,000-square-foot Fairway was an anchor for the 750,000 square foot open-air shopping center along with Sears and Macy's. Both of them closed earlier in 2019 as the country's retail crisis continued to play out in the Hudson Valley.

Fairway's only stores in the Hudson Valley were in Nanuet and Pelham. There are two other stores in the New York-based chain close to Rockland: in Paramus and Woodland Park.

Fairway began as a small produce stand on Manhattan's Upper West Side and has since grown to a 14-store network. The founders of the business, the Glickberg family, ran the store for four generations before selling it to private equity.

Fairway's Upper West Side flagship location on Broadway and West 74th Street has recently drawn interest from competing supermarket brands interested in buying up the real estate, the Post reported.

A spokesman for Fairway did not immediately return Patch's request for comment.

At one point, Fairway's owners planned to open as many as 300 stores nationwide. The expansion plan was enacted when a majority of the company was acquired by private equity firm Sterling Investment, which later took the company public.

This isn't Fairway's first brush with bankruptcy. The company was able to dig itself out of Chapter 11 proceedings in 2016 by borrowing money in exchange for equity. The reorganization shifted ownership of Fairway from Sterling Investment Partners to a consortium led by Blackstone's GSO Capital Partners.

Read the full New York Post article here.

Patch editors Brendan Krisel and Lanning Taliaferro contributed to this report.