Retail Roundup: Grocer scraps plan for ex-Pathmark site, officials say 

A Key Food operator has scrapped plans to open a grocery store in a Baldwin building that Pathmark vacated in 2015, Hempstead Town officials said.

Pick Quick Foods Inc. started renovating the building at 1764 Grand Ave. for a Key Food last year, but, according to Town of Hempstead spokesman Mike Fricchione, the company has backed out of the project because its “economic business model has shifted” and it was not able to open the store.

“Right now, the town is reaching out to other prospective developers to see if we can bring in a different supermarket," he said.

Pick Quick Foods, headquartered in Hempstead, did not respond to requests for comment.

Staten Island-based Key Food Stores Co-Op Inc. is a cooperative of independently owned and operated stores. Pick Quick Foods owns seven Key Food stores in the metro area, including three on Long Island, in Floral Park/Elmont, Rockville Centre and Massapequa. 

 Key Food did not respond to requests for comment.

On Aug. 8, Pick Quick Foods submitted to the Town of Hempstead an application for a building permit for renovations at the Baldwin site, and received the permit a month later, Fricchione said.

 The 50,000-square-foot building was subdivided, with 15,000 square feet being dedicated to a planned beauty supply store, said Brian Newman, director of architectural services at Newman Design, the Cold Spring Hills firm that did the architectural design for the project.

Feel Beauty is expected to open this summer, said Paul Park, who works in ecommerce for the beauty supply chain. 

Pick Quick Foods planned to open the Key Food in Baldwin next month, but stopped renovation work a few months ago, said Tony Speelman, president of Local 1500 of the United Food and Commercial Workers.

The union represents about 400 employees working in deli, produce, checkout aisles, stocking and other areas at Pick Quick Foods’ seven Key Food stores, he said.

UFCW Local 342 represents another 38 workers in the meat and seafood departments, said Lisa O’Leary, secretary-treasurer for Local 342.

The 38 employees were “locked out” of working at the seven stores from early April until mid-May because of a contract dispute over salary and health insurance benefits, she said. The workers’ last contract expired in 2016, O’Leary said.

A tentative agreement was reached Wednesday night, but the workers still must vote on it, she said.

The former Pathmark in Baldwin was one of 51 Long Island grocery stores, some of which were Waldbaum’s, that closed after their parent company, Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. in New Jersey, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2015.

Pick Quick Foods bought the former Pathmark property in Baldwin for $20 million in 2016.

“They haven’t given up the land. They are still fully permitted. It still meets the requirements with parking and everything else for that to be a supermarket,” Fricchione said.

Retail Roundup is a column about major retail news on Long Island — store openings, closings, expansions, acquisitions, etc. — that is published online and in the Monday paper. To read more of these columns, click here. If you have news to share, please send an email to Newsday reporter Tory N. Parrish at tory.parrish@newsday.com.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.