Westside Market On West 77th To Close In November

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — WestSide Market on Broadway between West 76th and 77th street will close on Nov. 30 regardless of whether the neighborhood grocery store can work out a lease extension with its landlord, a store manager told Patch.

The independent grocery store will close either for renovations or in search of a new space, Ian Joskowitz, a manager at Westside Market's store on Broadway and West 110th Street, told Patch. The store and its landlord, Triumph Hotels, have been deadlocked on lease negotiations for months.

"You never know," Joskowitz told Patch. "Between now and then we could come up with a deal in which case we’ll close to renovate. If no deal is struck we will just close it and look elsewhere in the neighborhood."

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An "ideal" situation for WestSide Market is an agreement to stay in its current space and to expand into a vacant space next door, Joskowitz told Patch. But there have been no recent "breakthroughs" in negotiations between WestSide Market and Triumph Hotels, and the grocery store has already begun to search for a new home.

If WestSide Market is forced to move out of its current location it would try to find a new retail space nearby. The store is looking to move into a location that is larger than its current store, Joskowitz told Patch.

"We will try to look as close to that location as possible, it’s a great neighborhood and we’ve been there a long time," Joskowitz said.

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.

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