It should have been a quick food store trip. The only item on the list was parmesan cheese for that night’s pasta dinner.
But I left the Price Saver supermarket that June 2019 evening without the spaghetti-topper and concerned for the health of others who shopped there. Having worked in a successful food store while in college, it was apparent this one wouldn’t be popular. Perception proved accurate as the going out of business signs would be up in the windows of this Middlesex store before too long.
It was impossible to see the entire future that night 17 months ago, but here we are. Outdated containers of granular cheese are now the least of anyone’s worries about the defunct Lincoln Boulevard food store. The supermarket operator went belly up, the redeveloper landlord didn’t get paid rent. The Borough of Middlesex hasn’t received its PILOT money for two years. The in-arrears property is scheduled for a Dec. 2 tax sale.
Perhaps taxpayers will get at least a short-term break from making up the anticipated food store revenue that didn’t show up. A tax “sale” does not mean someone buys the property. Instead, an investor pays off the real estate tax debt. In return, a lien gets place on the property with a relatively high interest rate. The incentive to an investor is they get their money back – and then some – when the lien gets paid off. Town officials say $59,000+ in back land taxes are owed for 2019, but that’s just part of the story.
Counting the unpaid land taxes, PILOT payments and interest penalties, officials contend the LLC that owns the property owes about $285,000. The Middlesex Borough Council’s meeting agenda for this week lists the food store as an executive session item due to potential litigation. That does not suggest the two sides are on the verge of resolving the matter.
Meanwhile…the new high-rise, The View, continues to progress across the parking lot. A five-story building that couldn’t be possible without the partner food store property to share parking spaces.
Once again, this points to questionable municipal government decision-making in Middlesex. Taxpayers are growing fatigued of the explanation “It’s DiMura’s fault.” But it’s hard to deny ex-Mayor Ron DiMura had a large role in this tale of the anti-Super Foodtown.
The Planning Board approved the high-rise/supermarket plan in May 2017 by a 5-3 vote. One of those five approvers was DiMura. The mayor typically had his designee sit in for him during board reviews. In 2017, he participated himself in only one site plan review – this one. Had someone else filled in and perhaps had a different take on the application, the vote could have ended, 4-4. A tie does not equal approval.
Maybe DiMura’s participation was all a coincidence. The redevelopment LLC’s main partner was a political donor to the state senator whose law firm served the governing body during most of DiMura’s mayoral tenure. Maybe that was just happenstance. It must have also been a coincidence that the partner made a $10,000 contribution to the ex-mayor’s infamous scholarship fund, according to the State Attorney General’s Office.
When discussion of a PILOT for The View showed up on a Borough Council agenda in November 2017, a citizen pointed out a potential conflict of interest. Two council members had received campaign donations the prior year from companies headed by the redevelopment LLC’s head. DiMura had served as the councilmen’s campaign treasurer.
The disclosure did nothing to slow the headlong rush to approve the PILOT agreement. The View tax abatement was okayed. In May 2018, a separate PILOT for the food store was discussed. Again, a taxpayer raised the conflict question. Again, it got ignored. Again, the PILOT sailed to approval. Too bad members of that governing body can’t step into a time machine and rectify their lack of attention to a wailing alarm bell. Development decisions don’t work that way.
In the face of public questions that May 2018 evening, DiMura assumed his usual role as pro-redevelopment cheerleader, particularly when the applicant was a political donor to certain state senators.
The May 29, 2018 council minutes read: “Mayor DiMura stated again that he feels this is good for the town and that the supermarket will bring more non-residential use into the area. Mayor also stated that the $90,000 minimum the developer agreed to in the agreement means that he is confident that the supermarket owner thinks this will be successful.”
More false promises, similar to the assurance that the site’s occupant would be a big-name-brand Super Foodtown.
Time for something else?
The fate of the food store property itself remains an open question. For sale signs sprang up on the site a year ago. Rumors sometimes breeze through town about potential buyers or grocery operators.
There was community sentiment to welcome the Price Saver store when it opened for several months in 2019. But there were signs the building wasn’t a finished product. Beat up, dented front doors likely dating back to the Reagan Administration. Rusted handrail on attached liquor store that began decaying long ago. Who can forget the endlessly blinking outdoor sign that never got fixed? It was if just enough got done “redevelopment-wise” to try to make the food store viable at least in the short term.
Sure it was handy for spot home project needs, but a True Value Hardware store sharing space with a supermarket was an oddity. There was also the EZ Pizza counter. In a town that already has loads of successful pizzerias? Hard to believe the DiGiorno frozen pizza distributor liked delivering to a food store that served hot pies.
As mentioned earlier, perhaps the parmesan cheese excursion was a sign of bigger problems to come. During a quick run through the new store, none could be easily found. A stop at the courtesy counter yielded no help. “I don’t know what that is,” a woman working there replied.
So, it was one more quick sprint through the supermarket before departing. There they were, on a shelf right next to the deli. Just like most food stores, a couple of containers of granular parmesan waited for a buyer. A cell phone confirms the date was June 12, 2019. Problem was that the two cheese containers were past their expiration date. One was May 23, 2019. The other was May 30, 2019.
All things considered, maybe another food store will never open on the Lincoln Boulevard site. During the hey-day of the Shop-Rite and Pathmark food stores housed there in decades past, the region Middlesex Borough sits in was a different place. Back then, there weren’t plenty of successful, newer supermarkets in surrounding towns as there are now. As times change, maybe the best use for that site has changed, too. Perhaps a different type of business would flourish where a supermarket struggled. Does the redeveloper’s existing PILOT agreement create a roadblock to that happening? Maybe it’s another issue that will have to be sorted out.
Pundit 