Landlord sues Mrs. Green’s for $13.9M on closed Hartsdale health foods market

A landlord is suing an affiliate of Mrs. Green”™s Natural Foods for $13.9 million for unpaid rents on a closed Hartsdale store.

Brixmor Property Group filed a complaint on March 6 in Westchester Supreme Court, accusing Mrs. Green”™s of defaulting on a lease at Dalewood II Shopping Center on North  Central Avenue.

Mrs. Green”™s, based in Irvington, has closed several area stores in recent years but still sells health foods in Briarcliff Manor, Eastchester, Mount Kisco and Yorktown Heights.

Brixmor is a publicly traded real estate investment trust based in Manhattan. It owns and operates more than 400 shopping centers and last year it booked $274 million in net income on revenue of nearly $1.2 billion.

In 2013, Mrs. Green”™s leased 21,093 square feet for 20 years in Dalewood Shopping Center, 381-393 N. Central Ave. The base rent began at $590,604 a year and was to culminate at $786,136 in the last five years.

But Mrs. Green”™s Natural Market didn”™t last long in that location, closing around 2015. It subleased the space for three years, with Brixmor”™s consent, to Best Market, a Bethpage grocery chain concentrated on Long Island. The Best Market closed in late 2017.

Brixmor claims that Best Market fully paid its rents, but since then Mrs. Green”™s has not covered rents and expenses.

The landlord applied a $295,302 security deposit to the debt.

Then in January, Brixmor terminated the lease and demanded that Mrs. Green”™s pay past due rents and future rents under the 20-year lease, allegedly totaling $13,907,120.

Efforts to reach Mrs. Green”™s for its side of the story were unsuccessful.

Brixmor is represented by Eastchester attorney Lisa M. Bluestein.