Crown Heights Supermarket Given 30 Days To Vacate Site

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — The fight to save a Crown Heights supermarket has ramped up this week as the longtime grocery received 30 days to vacate the site, according to reports.

Associated Supermarket on Nostrand Avenue was given the vacate notice after negotiations between its owner and the property owners fell through, BKLYNER first reported.

The market first made headlines in the neighborhood in late January, when managers said it had been given 90 days to leave the site, sparking outrage from nearby residents who worried that a food desert would be created in the western portion of the neighborhood. The owners of the property have denied that the 90-day notice was ever given.

Nearly 5,000 people have signed a petition aimed at saving the market.

The grocery, which sits between Empire Boulevard and Montgomery Street, has been in the neighborhood for more than 30 years, according to residents.

It had been operating on a month-to-month basis since its lease expired in June 2020.

Midwood Investment and Development, who gave the vacate notice, have said that they have been in talks with Associated's owner for years about their plan to change the use of the property. They have said Associated owners were offered $300,000 and the right of first offer on a new supermarket space planned for the site if he vacated the property by July.

Midwood has said it plans to build affordable housing on the site, along with a new, larger supermarket.

"We appreciate local concerns about the temporary loss of a grocery store on this site," a spokesperson said this week. "At the same time, we are hopeful that community members will see the benefits of replacing an oversized surface parking lot and a 50-year-old obsolete supermarket space with desperately needed affordable housing and a new, larger supermarket."

Associated owner Pablo Espinal has said he was never given a guarantee the supermarket would be able to come back and declined the offers from Midwood, according to the outlet.

The latest news has prompted plans for another protest at the site this Saturday.