Ogdensburg shopping plaza owner: closing P&C will be replaced soon
OGDENSBURG — The owners of the Seaway Shopping Center here are not worried about filling the vacancy that will be left when the P&C grocery leaves the plaza in April.
Officials from Brookline Development Co., Syracuse, which owns the shopping plaza, plan to meet with city officials soon to discuss the vacancy and several stores that are interested in moving into the property.
"We've done pretty aggressive marketing and we've got some solid leads," said Mark J. Cardone, director of leasing with the company. "We're aggressively marketing the space to national and regional grocers, and we still feel it's the best location in the market."
According to Mr. Cardone, the grocery store, which was bought by Tops Friendly Markets in January, is not bound by its lease to remain at the property past the April 10 closing date.
Recently, Price Chopper purchased from Tops the P&C stores in Canton, Potsdam, Massena, Gouverneur and West Carthage. Those stores are expected to close in early April and reopen as Price Choppers in late May.
On March 11, Tops announced it will close the Ogdensburg store because of its condition and location. A spokeswoman for Tops said the company is considering the future of the Watertown and Lowville P&C stores.
Mr. Cardone said he has not heard any news about the Watertown store, which is also in a Seaway Shopping Center.
"That store has been a grocery store as long as that plaza's been in existence. We're pretty confident either Tops will take it over or it will remain another grocery store, but we have not been given any answer from Tops yet," he said.
Although Mr. Cardone did not name the parties interested in taking over the property, he said the company is focused on bringing another grocery store to fill the nearly 40,000-square-foot space P&C will leave in the plaza.
"Ideally, another grocer will take all or part of the space," he said. "We want to do everything we can to fill it with a tenant that serves the patrons there."
