Landlord Objects to Super Fresh Sale

JON SPRINGER

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — The landlord of a Washington, D.C., Super Fresh store set to change hands as a result of A&P’s recent auction has filed an objection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court here, citing concerns that the proposed new tenant, Mrs. Green’s Natural Market, lacks the financial strength required of the lease.

In court papers, Apex Management, owner of a Washington, D.C., Super Fresh site — one of eight stores proposed to be acquired by Mrs. Green's — cited clauses in the lease requiring successor tenants to demonstrate financial condition and performance similar to the original tenant at the time the original lease was signed. A&P signed the initial lease in 1962, when it had the 2011 equivalent of $37 billion in annual sales, Apex argued.

“Mrs. Green’s is not a credit tenant and does not have the financial condition and operating performance of A&P in 1962,” Apex said. “Mrs. Green’s, about which there is scant public information available, appears to have only 11 stores that average between $1 million and $3 million in annual sales — in contrast to Super Fresh’s sales at this location in excess of $14.1 million in 2010.”

Apex also cites concerns related to the fact that Mrs. Green’s parent company, Planet Organic, itself went through a recent bankruptcy in Canada. Officials from Mrs. Green’s and Planet Organic were unavailable for comment.

A hearing on the proposed sales is scheduled here on June 14.