Gowanus Pathmark a victim of gentrification, by George Fiala

The Pathmark supermarket, which opened in Gowanus in 1992, is now closed permanently. The Pathmark chain was bought by A & P in 2007, which declared bankruptcy earlier this year.

Over the past few months, A & P put all of its stores and store leases up for auction in a bankruptcy sale. Many of the stores were sold to other chains, such as Stop and Shop and Acme Supermarkets. The Gowanus store was purchased at auction by Joyland Group, LLC, a Borough Park real estate company headed by Joel Wertzberger.

The purchase price was $6.2 million, over $2 million more than the next highest bidder, Acme Supermarkets.

The auction result was disclosed at the beginning of October, and many in the community were dismayed. Shoppers who depended on Pathmark as a convenient and easy alternative to other higher priced area supermarkets felt they had lost an important neighborhood resource.

The unionized workers, many of whom were Pathmark employees since the beginning, were faced with the loss of good-paying jobs. City Councilman Brad Lander sent a letter to the bankruptcy judge, Robert Drain, urging the continuance of a reasonably priced supermarket. The owner of the property, Hamilton Plaza Associates, based in New Jersey, echoed those sentiments, also objecting to the sale in a letter to Judge Drain. A Facebook page, Save Pathmark Gowanus, was set up and solicited signatures for a grassroots petition.

Despite these objections, Judge Drain approved the sale, making Pathmark’s closing imminent and leaving the future of the location in doubt.
Pathmark sits in an M2-1 zoning district, which precludes residential development. Wertzberger, who first was quoted by DNAinfo as saying that his company “has desire to operate a supermarket.” In a later story, he says that he hasn’t ruled out leasing to a grocery store, but that he is considering offers from a shipping company, an “international clothing brand,” a wedding hall operator and several retailers.

Supermarkets are a low-margin business, highly dependent on cost and volume. People familiar with the industry speculate that a low margin business would have difficulty operating with the rent needed to make this $6.2 million deal work for the purchaser.

The possibility of a high margin operator such as an international clothing brand seems more likely than a supermarket.