The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. auctioned more than 100 of its supermarkets, including a Waldbaum’s in Great Neck, at a Manhattan law office last Thursday and Friday.
The financially beleaguered company also tentatively agreed to sell 12 A&P, Pathmark and Waldbaum’s stores, including the Pathmark at 2335 New Hyde Park Road in New Hyde Park, to ShopRite parent company WakeFern Food Corp. for $40 million, according to documents filed in United States southern district bankruptcy court on Sept. 29.
The WakeFern-purchased locations will be placed for auction on Oct. 8 if competing bids emerge.
If they are outbid, WakeFern will receive a $1.2 million “Termination Payment” from the successful bidder, according to court documents.
Staten-Island based Key Food Stores Co-operative Inc. recently modified their offer to purchase 17 supermarkets to 16 supermarkets, including the Waldbaum’s at 1050 Willis Ave. in Albertson.
Key Food offered $28.5 million for the 16 supermarket locations, according to court documents filed on Sept. 30.
On Sept. 22, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Drain approved the sale of the Pathmark in Greenvale’s Wheatley Plaza to the Stop & Shop Supermarket Company LLC as part of a 24-store, $124 million deal with Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea, court records showed.
Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in July to protect their A&P, Food Basics, The Food Emporium, Pathmark, Superfresh and Waldbaum’s stores from creditors.
Local 338 of the Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Union and the United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents employees of the various A&P-owned stores, released a chart on its website revealing which store locations in New York were sold and which received no bid.
The Waldbaum’s at 40 Great Neck Road had received no bid at the auction, but the website stated that any store that went unsold would be for sale again when auctions resumed on Oct. 8 and 9.
A Village of Great Neck Plaza Business Improvement District official said the village would suffer if no buyer was found.
“If nothing opens there, this is going to be a punch in the stomach to the village,” said the BID official, who asked not to be identified.
The official added that the Waldbaum’s would be closed within the next two weeks.
Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea announced at the end of September that they had received 128 separate bids for their various stores, but did not reveal the names of the bidders.
“There are rumors of whose going to take the location,” the Great Neck BID official said. “I am assuming it’s going to be a supermarket, but no names have been mentioned to us.”
The stores are being auctioned at the law offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges at 787 Fifth Ave.
Successful bids are scheduled to be considered at a Oct. 16 hearing by the United States southern district bankruptcy court in White Plains for approval.
New Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce Secretary and 2nd Vice President Jerry Baldassaro and Chamber of Commerce of the Willistons president John Gordon said they had no knowledge of when the closings would take place because the New Hyde Park Pathmark and Albertson Waldbaum’s were not members of their respective chambers.
Efforts to reach Great Neck Chamber of Commerce president Hooshang Nematzadeh and North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth were unavailing.
A statement from Local 338 President John Durso said they would file an objection against any buyer who would not employ the workers currently working in the purchased stores or for any non-supermarket operator.
“The UFCW/RWDSU will be filing objections with the court and protesting any buyer who has not agreed to employ the workers currently working in these stores,” Durso said. “Unfortunately, other winning bidders are non-supermarket operators such as CVS and real estate companies. We will be filing an objection to these bids with the court but as we have said from the beginning, the reality is that not all of our members will be fortunate enough to have their store bought by a good, union supermarket operator.”
