For Rent Sign Outside Westside Market Worries Upper West Side Shoppers

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — On the surface, things look ominous at Westside Market on Broadway between West 76th and 77th streets. A sign posted on the longtime independent grocer reads "for rent" and construction next door signals an effort by new landlords to renovate the building.

But Ian Joskowitz, a manager at Westside Market's store on Broadway and West 110th Street, told Patch that the regional grocery store chain is simply working with its new landlord Triumph Hotels to secure a long-term lease for the market to stay at its current location.

"We’re in the ordinary course of negotiating the lease," Joskowitz told Patch. "We want to stay there, been there for many, many years and want to stay there many, many years longer. We haven’t come to an agreement yet."

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As for the "for rent" sign — that's just the landlord exercising their rights, Joskowitz told Patch.

"We don’t want to make an adversarial relationship with our landlord, we're just trying to alleviate people’s stress and concern over us leaving," Joskowitz told Patch.

Joskowitz told Patch that customers are calling the Westside Market worried that the supermarket will have to move or close its doors.

Worries that Westside Market may have to leave its West 77th Street location were first reported by DNAinfo.

The independent grocery store chain — which operates five stores on the Upper West Side — has been at West 77th street about 35 years, Joskowitz told Patch. In a neighborhood that is being proliferated by big-name grocery stores such as Trader Joes, Fairway and Whole Foods Market, the independent grocer can offer its customers a more personalized experience.

"What we do is unique, we run each store individually so they can tailor that particular store for that neighborhood," Joskowitz told Patch. "That’s one of the reasons the neighborhood has been attached to their market in their neighborhood."

But big grocery stores and online grocery services such as FreshDirect have offered Westside Market some serious competition, and are changing the business landscape on Broadway. The shift can be seen in the number of closing businesses and the lack of independent retail options in the neighborhood, Jowskowitz said.

But despite big business competition, Westside Market at West 77th Street has one of the company's most loyal customer bases, which makes Joskowitz optimistic that a lease extension can be negotiated.

Nothing really that tells me we can’t come to an agreement," Joskowitz told Patch. "We believe its mutually beneficial."

Photo by Google Maps street view