Posted Feb 2, 2013, 2:18 PM
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New Yorker for life
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Borough of Jersey
Posts: 51,900
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http://www.downtownexpress.com/resid...ark-closure-2/
Residents, politicians rally against L.E.S. Pathmark closure
BY SAM SPOKONY
October 17, 2012
Quote:
Around a hundred Lower East Side residents gathered alongside community leaders and politicians on Wed., Oct. 10 to rally against the impending closure of a Pathmark supermarket, which would pave the way for a largely unwelcome, upscale residential development. “This community is stunned that we will very soon be deprived of a very basic need in our neighborhood,” said Victor Papa, president of the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council, at the rally outside the Pathmark at 227 Cherry St. “And that need is the affordable food and medicine that this [supermarket and pharmacy] has provided for nearly three decades.”
A&P, which owns Pathmark, announced on Sept. 28 that the Cherry Street supermarket will close at the end of December due to the sale of its lease to an unidentified party. An A&P spokesperson said the corporation is relinquishing the lease to accommodate a “large scale residential development and improvement project, while preserving the right to operate once the project is complete.”
State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who helped lead a similar and successful fight in 2007, when the Cherry Street Pathmark was in danger of being replaced by a residential development, gave spirited and optimistic remarks at Wednesday’s gathering. “We’ve fought this battle before, and we’ll fight it again,” Silver told the crowd — before adding, amid cheers, his firm belief that, “We’ll win!”
Papa later explained that, although he hasn’t received confirmation, he has good reason to believe that the developer now in control of the 227 Cherry St. lease is the Extell Development Company, which is led by Gary Barnett. A spokesperson representing Barnett declined to comment.
Extell’s residential properties are all massive luxury apartment buildings.
The company is currently constructing the 90-story One57 building in Midtown, which, at just over 1,000 feet, will be the tallest residential building in the city once it is completed next year. One57’s duplex penthouse sold for over $90 million last May.
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