A new grocery, Metro Acres Market, will be replacing the Fine Fare at 175 Clinton St.
The space, located between East Broadway and Grand Street, is owned by the Seward Park Cooperative. In a memo sent to residents on Friday, the co-op’s board of directors announced the change. Following months of negotiations, the new operator is set to take over on July 1. Metro Acres Market is a new venture from the owners of City Acres Market, which operates two other stores, one in South Williamsburg, the other in the Financial District.
The Seward Park board indicates that new operators will invest $1 million to upgrade the Fine Fare space. The store will remain open while the renovations are taking place. According to the memo, “Metro Acres Market, like the existing City Acres Market stores, will focus on fresh food, cleanliness and excellent customer service.”
More from the board:
Although the look and feel of the store will be vastly improved, with new fresh offerings and a small seating area, groceries will continue to be part of the same distribution and discount program as the Fine Fare stores, thereby keeping prices competitive and offerings varied. Metro Acres Market is committed to growing the store’s customer base and retaining existing customers.
For years, customers have complained about product offerings and customer service at Fine Fare. Many locals immediately switched their loyalties to Trader Joe’s and Target when those chains opened just a half block from Fine Fare in the Essex Crossing complex a few months ago. Other residents may be enticed to do more of their grocery shopping at the expanded Essex Market, which just opened a sparkling new facility on the south side of Delancey Street, also part of Essex Crossing.
City Acres opened its first store in Brooklyn in 2013, in an affordable residential building developed by L+M Development Partners (L+M is incidentally one of the developers of Essex Crossing and is battling locals to build a mega-project in Two Bridges). The Financial District location, which debuted in 2017, is a combo grocery-food hall. City Acres was founded by Colin Xie and Jason Chung, who also run grocery stores in Forest Hills and Far Rockaway.
One other related note. When the Pathmark store on Cherry Street closed about six years ago, many residents in the Two Bridges area began shopping at Fine Fare. Extell Development, which built an 80-story luxury condo tower on the Pathmark site, promised years ago to open a grocery in its new Lower East Side complex. So far, in spite of pleas from residents and elected officials, Extell has not lived up to its promise. Â For a time, Extell was, at least, providing updates about the quest for a market at quarterly construction meetings with residents. It hasn’t held one of those meetings in many months.
We reached out to Fine Fare for a response. We’ll let you know if they respond. There is another Fine Fare store at 545 Grand St.
