Village of Great Neck Plaza residents will soon see the return of an important community need — a supermarket.
Neal Kaplan, the managing partner of Kabro Associates, a real estate development and management firm that owns the shopping center where Best Market is scheduled to open at 40 Great Neck Road, said Monday he expected the supermarket to open in the next week or two.
“I cannot confirm whether it’s that date or a few days later,” Kaplan said of a rumored Jan. 29 opening. “But my guess is it should be open some time by the first week of February.”
The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co. 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.
After two rounds of auctions in October, Great Neck’s Waldbaum’s received no bids, leaving residents, employees, and public officials unsure of the future of the supermarket.
A White Plains bankruptcy court judge approved Best Yet Market Inc.’s $4.43 million bid to purchase five Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. supermarkets in November, which included Great Neck’s supermarket for $1.5 million.
Best Yet Market, a Bethpage-based family-owned company that operates supermarkets under the name “Best Market,” was also approved to buy a Waldbaum’s in Selden and Pathmarks in Shirley, Islip, and West Babylon as part of the deal.
Alejandra Soto, a Best Yet Market spokeswoman, said she was also unable to confirm Best Market’s scheduled opening date.
Kaplan said he was at the store last Wednesday, and saw non-perishable items stocked on shelves.
Great Neck Chamber of Commerce President Scott Zimmerman said he was impressed with how quickly Best Market was able to renovate the store.
“It’s a great win for the area. We needed the supermarket,” Zimmerman said. “I applaud them for having such a short turnaround to get the place open.”
Village of Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender said the village always wanted to have a supermarket operating in the space vacated by Waldbaum’s.
“It’s been the village’s desire to have a full-service, high-quality supermarket operating in the Gardens of Great Neck space as soon as possible, since that space has been an active supermarket for more than 20 years,” Celender said in a statement. “We believe it’s going to be a good supermarket to service the community and we are looking forward to welcoming Best Market to the Plaza.”
Soto said both parties and the bankruptcy judge agreed on Nov. 3 that Best Yet Market would make a “good faith, best effort of an offer of employment” to at least 25 percent of employees from the former supermarket.
She added that Best Market would hire employees based on who was the best person for the job and not who had been working at Waldbaum’s the longest.
Efforts to reach store manager Jay Schwartz were unavailing.
