Photo: QueensPost
Nov. 28, 2012 By Bill Parry
The Foodtown supermarket at 41-25 Greenpoint Ave. will close by the end of December.
Store manager Ashot Hyusyan said he and the staff were notified of the imminent closing the day before Thanksgiving. “It made for a miserable holiday around here,” he said. “Thirty-plus workers, our customers, our vendors…everyone’s feeling this.”
Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer said he found out about the closing from emails from constituents. “Losing a job is awful anytime, but during the holidays makes it so much worse,” Van Bramer said. “We’ll do anything we can to help those Sunnysiders who are affected.”
A supervisor from PSK Supermarkets, the company that oversees 13-area Foodtown stores, said that all the employees will be situated at our other stores within the company. He blamed an uncooperative landlord for the situation.
Hyusyan said the store tried everything to keep the market open. “We even offered to buy the building and took him to court; he wouldn’t budge,” he said.
The landlord’s identity is unknown to Hyusyan and the Supervisor from PSK Supermarkets. Two high-profile real estate executives didn’t know who owned the property.
The Vassiliou Group has been linked to the property in listings but denied ownership this past summer.
Van Bramer said his office is investigating.
