Town Board in Triage; A&P Outreach By Brown

Despite the trouncing the Town Board received in Edgemont’s meeting the other night, we give kudos to Councilwoman Sonya Brown for holding another meeting a day later in Fairview, at the Union Baptist Church, at Manhattan Avenue and Rt 119, regarding the announced closing of the A&P across the street in the Crossroads Shopping Center (with KMart). Supervisor Feiner and the rest of the Board members,  noticeable absent, could learn a thing or two from Ms. Brown!

Since the announced supermarket closings in two Greenburgh neighborhoods under Supervisor Feiner's bloated tenure, Supervisor Feiner has pretended to be concerned, written letters and claims to have reached out to KMart, requesting they carry more food and staples to accommodate the neighborhood because of this difficult loss of a supermarket. It's ridiculous and reinforces his lack of business acumen. As a note, we're reminded of the temporary arrangement Stop and Shop agreed to with the supervisor as a tradeoff for fast-tracking their super Stop and Shop project on Rt 119 to provide a shuttle from the old Stop and Shop for one year for the senior citizens and non-car owners to be shuttled to the new super Stop and Shop on Rt 119. You'll start reading it on his blog.

In our previous post about the Edgemont meeting where the exposed tax increase that Feiner hid from everyone came out, ABG wonders how long Feiner knew about the A&P and Pathmark closings and what kind of “strategerizing” took place with him and the “Stepford” Board. It was contended by speakers at the last Town Board meeting, that Feiner and his Board's negative treatment of the Fairview portion of the town has led to to the area’s decline and the reason why stores and businesses are leaving. Now he wants to spread his Midas touch to Morton Williams, posting on his blog that he has approached them about accepting WICs coupons. Nice try, Paul. First, they already accept them. Second, they are higher priced with many items and WICs users won't get as much purchasing power for their “money”. Third, it's not located within walking distance for many of the Fairview area nor the people located in and around the Manhattan Avenue area.

As a note, last year Supervisor Feiner and the Town Board as well as Planning Commissioner Thomas Madden, were desperately seeking ways to implement new taxes and fines. One of the businesses that was a projected target for fines, was The Apple Farm in the White Plains Bowl/Lohmanns Shopping Center. Their crime? They were blocking the private sidewalk with crates of food. Alert the SWAT team! If they were deliveries, they should be removed. If they were storing them there, they should be moved - period. Speaking with the store manager would seem to be a more reasonable solution to a simple issue as opposed to writing a law to fine them. Does the supervisor enjoy antagonizing businesses, especially food stores? It would appear so. I guess we won't be seeing an Apple Farm II in the Crossroads Shopping Center anytime soon.

 ABG didn't know that this meeting would also involve discussing other community issues until we arrived. Councilwoman Brown introduced a representative from The Hayman Realty Group, the properties landlord at the Crossroads Shopping Center. She explained that most supermarkets seek a minimum of 60,000 square feet and the existing store was only 40,000 square feet. She further claimed that all of the landlord's attempts to secure another tenant once they learned of the bankruptcy produced no results. Several names were suggested to her such as C-Town, Gristedes, Morton Williams, Trader Joe's, which yielded a look of amazement from the representative. She claimed they tried numerous methodologies to seek renters: flyers, phone calls, ads, to name a few. Flyers? ABG could see if they were trying to rent a studio apartment, but flyers for a 40,000 square foot space seems rather lame.

Up until this point, Ms. Brown had no insight, the realtor offered nothing that we didn't already know except that this came to light some time in December. Resident Hal Samis stated the date of December 10th. The bright spot was when a gentleman named John stood up and announced he was the manager of the A&P and the former assistant manager of the also doomed Pathmark on Central Aveune. He stated that he was surprised at the Pathmark closing and thought they were profitable. He said apparently he was wrong. As to the A&P, he stated they had been losing money for years, and were being “carried” by the organization. He did say that his store's sales were mostly basics, not extras; had not been updated in years, with inefficient freezers and other equipment; and generally too small for the products the A&P wanted to have the store carry. This would increase their profits and margins.

At some point in the middle of the meeting there was a fight outside of the church which required a police response. It's unfortunate but this is also some of what a new store will look at when they evaluate the area to see if they would want to move in. The space has many things against it that potential retailers must address financially. First, a modernization of the facility for aesthetics, new equipment to gain an energy edge, the size of the space, and needs of the neighborhood and what the landlord will charge in rent. Mr. Samis also suggested several ideas to help make the space more financially attractive as well as reducing the other tenants rents now that one of the anchors is leaving. By the way, they will be gone on April 16. Pathmark is slated to close a day earlier.

Supervisor Paul Feiner's reign is showing it's age and the infrastructure he has tried to mask from us is crumbling. It's time for us to have him retire, whether voluntarily or by mandate from the people and bring in some new ideas, new people and a true open government.