As more and more former A&P locations in Westchester County reopen under new banners, two remain closed, with their futures uncertain.
While Shanghai Enterprises LLC won the bid for the A&P store at 87 Main St. in Hastings-on-Hudson and Ruben Luna won the bid for the store at 230 Saw Mill River Road in Millwood, both backed out of their agreements, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains.
A&P has sued both Queens-based Shanghai Enterprises and Luna, citing breaches of lease sale agreements, according to court records filed Dec. 16.
A&P, represented by New York City legal firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, is suing Luna, who also operates a Key Food Store location in Queens, for $2.4 million plus interest and attorneys”™ fees. It is also seeking damages of at least $1.28 million for the uncompleted Hastings sale, plus applicable interest and attorneys”™ fees.
Shanghai Enterprises”™ bid of $928,000 plus the purchase of all inventory at cost was approved on Oct. 29 by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert D. Drain. Shanghai Enterprises informed A&P on Nov. 10, the day before the store closed, that it was backing out of the deal for unspecified reasons.
“Despite the binding and irrevocable nature of its contractual obligations, Shanghai failed to move forward with the purchase … as it was required to do under the sale order and the express terms of the lease sale agreement,” the complaint reads.
By Christmas, all inventory within view of the store”™s front windows had been removed, the damages of which A&P placed in excess of $300,000. How long the store will remain vacant remains unclear.
In a November newsletter to residents, Hastings village officials estimated the store could be closed anywhere from “weeks to many months.” Officials had advocated for Shanghai to continue operating the location as a full-scale supermarket.
“We have met with the new lease holder who indicated that he purchased this lease with the intention to either sell or sublease it,” officials wrote at the time. “We made it clear to him that the location is zoned for supermarket (plus office space) and that it”™s crucial that this location remains a full-scale supermarket.”
According to documents filed Oct. 9 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Shanghai Enterprises won the bid with no back-up bidder. It was due to take over the 2001 lease signed originally between Hastings Grocery Owners LLC, a landlord unaffiliated with A&P and the supermarket chain, operating as Shopwell Inc.
Luna successfully bid $2.4 million on the 19,360-square-foot Millwood store on Oct. 8 and entered into a lease sale agreement with A&P and landlord A&P Real Property LLC on Oct. 26. He transferred the winning bid to Millwood Merchant LLC, which has a Manhattan address.
In a Nov. 19 letter to A&P, New York attorney Harlan Levine, who is representing Luna and Millwood Merchant LLC, said “certain concessions … would deprive Millwood Merchant LLC of the transaction it had bargained for.”
In adversary complaints filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Dec. 18, A&P said it was seeking damages from Luna “for breach of his obligation to purchase the Millwood store based on his winning bid at auction.”
“Ruben Luna, as the winning bidder, was not released from his obligations or from liability with respect to his winning bid when he assigned his bid to Millwood,” the complaint alleges.
The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co., A&P”™s New Jersey-based parent company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July. It shuttered all of its regional A&P and Pathmark banner stores by Nov. 26. Several A&P stores in Westchester have reopened as Stop & Shop and Acme Market locations.
