Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc., a Greenwich-based real estate investment trust, has sold the 12,900-square- foot Stratfield Market property in Fairfield to an undisclosed real estate development group for $1.2 million in an all-cash transaction.
The property was the site of Stratfield Supermarket, a locally owned grocery store that operated for 30 years before closing in 2006. Walgreen”™s signed a 20-year lease for the property but was blocked from opening when the town”™s zoning authority rejected its application. Walgreen”™s waged an unsuccessful legal battle for five years and efforts to attract other tenants to the vacant property failed.
Urstadt Biddle Properties purchased the property earlier this year as part of a larger transaction, also negotiating early termination of the Walgreen’s lease. Willing L. Biddle, the company”™s president and CEO, said the unnamed buyer was “committed to renovating the property as a neighborhood food store.”
