Fairway Shopping Around Manhattan Lease

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fairway logoFairway supermarket chain may have gained attention for its expansion tear and accolades as a specialty retailer, but the company is looking to bail on at least one of its leases in Manhattan, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

The lease in question is at Jack Resnick & Sons255 Greenwich Street in the Financial District with other Fairway lease transactions possibly facing the same fate.

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“They don’t have the money to build,” said one source. “The landlords certainly don’t want Fairway to leave. Fairway has to buy its way out of these lease obligations. I know they are working on Greenwich Street, possibly Staten Island and not yet for Hudson Yards.”

Fairway took a 52,242-square-foot, two-story space at the 14-story office tower at 255 Greenwich Street that spans the full block bound by Greenwich Street, Park Place, Murray Street and West Broadway. The building is adjacent to the World Trade Center site, National September 11 Memorial & Museum and Tribeca. The store is slated to be the first Fairway location in Lower Manhattan and the 16th Fairway food store in the tri-state area when it opens next year, according to Fairway’s website.

According to a spokesman for Jack Resnick & Sons, there is still a signed lease agreement at 225 Greenwich Street.

Fairway announced in August that the publicly traded company would be filling space in Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group‘s first office tower at the Hudson Rail Yards, a 52-story building on the corner of West 30th Street and 10th Avenue, as Crain’s New York Business reported at the time. The lease is for 46,000 square feet and the store set a 2015 opening date. Related and Oxford together building mixed-use properties on the 30-acre train yards. A spokeswoman for Related emailed that the lease in Hudson Yards is secure: “We have a fully executed, binding lease with Fairway.”

Fairway also said in August that it would anchor General Growth Properties‘ planned redevelopment of the Staten Island Mall with a newly built store in fiscal year 2017, Supermarket News reported.

Fairway declined to comment. Oxford did not immediately respond to requests for comment and nor did General Growth Properties.