COURIER L 4 IFE, JAN. 31-FEB. 6,2020
The fate of Fairway Market’s Red Hook and Georgetown branches hangs in the balance as
the grocery chain fi led for bankruptcy on Jan. 23. Photo by Max Jaeger
FAIRWAY
TO HEAVEN
Grocer fi les for bankruptcy, leaving
Brooklyn stores in jeopardy
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
They’re ready to check out.
After denying reports that it would
fi le for chapter 7 bankruptcy on Jan.
22, Fairway Market fi led for chapter
11 bankruptcy on Thursday, as the
company struggles to fi nd a buyer for
its Kings County supermarkets.
Fairway put its 14 supermarkets
up for sale in September to address
debts totaling $174 million, but the
grocer has only managed to sell its
five Manhattan markets to ShopRite
owner Village Super Market for $70
million, according to Chief Executive
Office Abel Porter.
That leaves Fairway’s Red Hook
and Georgetown supermarkets —
along with seven other stores located
throughout Queens, Long Island,
Connecticut, New Jersey, and
upstate New York — swinging in the
wind, and a spokeswoman for Fairway
could only promise that the
stores would stay open until bankruptcy
proceedings conclude.
A group of the company’s lenders
have also agreed to provide up to
$25 million to help reorganize Fairway
Market, according to a company
press release.
This is Fairway’s second time fi ling
for chapter 11 bankruptsy and
follows a 2016 reorganization that
saw the grocery reemerge under its
current ownership by investment
fi rms Brigade Capital Management
and Goldman Sachs Group — while
also closing one of its stores on Long
Island.
The chain, which began in 1933
as a fruit and vegetable stand on the
distant isle of Manhattan, opened its
fi rst Kings County outpost inside a
19th-century storage warehouse on
Red Hook’s Van Brunt Street in 2006
— which it had to shut down temporarily
after the massive waterfront
building took a beating during Superstorm
Sandy in 2012, before reopening
the following year.
The company later opened its second
Brooklyn location at the Ralph
Avenue strip mall in 2017.