‘Clock is running’ — Astoria grocer faces eviction amid COVID-19 crisis
/
Deli manager Laura Stevenson spoke out on behalf of Key Food Astoria at a rally in May 2019. Eagle file photo by Jonathan Sperling
By David Brand
An Astoria supermarket providing food for community members during the COVID-19 crisis — and for 40 years before that — may soon shut down operations and cut employees as an eviction date draws near.
The opaque LLC that owns the 31st Street site housing Key Food Astoria has not agreed to negotiate a new lease with the supermarket and instead seems intent on demolishing the building to make way for a new Target, said Larry Mandel, the chair of store owner Man-Dell Food Stores.
Mandel, whose family has owned the 31st Street store since the 1970s, fears the landlord will allow the lease to expire to make way for Target, a retail giant that plans to build a 47,000-square-foot store on the site by 2022. Lawyers representing the property manager, Jenel Management Corporation, have not yet responded to efforts to negotiate a lease that could accommodate both the Key Food and a new Target inside the existing two-story building, Mandel said.
“At this point, the lease is expiring at the end of October. The clock is running and we will have to start thinking about winding down the store,” Mandel said.
Closing a large supermarket is a months-long process that would require gradual lay-offs — all while New York City deals with unprecedented unemployment. But unlike the case in industries hard-hit by the coronavirus, the layoffs would not stem from the economic impact of isolation orders. Key Food has maintained all its employees while providing essential food to the community, Mandel said.
“Even throughout this crisis we’ve always paid our rent, and frankly it’s remarkable to me we’re having a conversation about closing a neighborhood supermarket at this terrible time,” Mandel said.
“It’s been a painful ordeal not only for us, but for the community and our personnel,” he added.
Jenel Real Estate and the managing partner behind the development, Alex Adjmi of Manhattan-based A&H Acquisitions, did not respond to emails seeking comment for this story.
The nearly 100 employees at Key Food Astoria are members of the UFCW Local 1500.
“We don’t want to lose this Key Food. It’s very, very important,” said deli manager Laura Stevenson at a rally in May 2019. “We have great employees that are working hard to serve everybody here well.”
The coronavirus crisis has exacerbated food insecurity for low-income families throughout Queens, while discouraging residents from traveling far for groceries.
Astoria Councilmember Costa Constantinides called the prospect of eviction and ensuing lay-offs “disturbing” for the community around 31st Street and Ditmars Boulevard.
“Key Food employees have put their life on the line day in, day out through this crisis to make sure northern Astoria is fed,” Constantinides said. “So the fact their landlord might kick them out, instead of working with them to find at least a short-term solution, is frankly disturbing.”
“The landlord would rather see dozens of union jobs disappear and northern Astoria go hungry than do the right thing,” he added. “Some 'neighborhood partner.'''
