Noah and Daniel Katz hope to open an 11,000 square foot Foodtown where the old supermarket and American Diner stood before the blaze. As of Friday, January 28, the NYC IDA planned to hold a public hearing about the requested bonds and breaks on Thursday, February 4 at 10 a.m.
The hearing was scheduled for the offices of the New York Economic Development Corporation at 110 William Street and interested members of the public were encouraged to attend.
The Katz family has requested exemptions from city property taxes and city and state mortgage and sales taxes.
Meanwhile, Norwood residents miss the neighborhood’s lone supermarket. Seniors have peppered Community Board 7 district manager Fernando Tirado with grocery-related questions. CB7 and the Bedford Park Senior Center hope to arrange a supermarket shuttle for less mobile Norwood shoppers, Tirado said.
“We need the Foodtown,” Mosholu Parkway resident Henry Perry said.
The five-alarm fire on December 21 destroyed Foodtown, the diner and Bainbridge Dental. Fire marshals later arrested the diner’s owner and a suspected partner in crime for arson and insurance fraud.
It was the second fire in two months on the Norwood business strip. A similar inferno damaged 17 businesses at Bainbridge Avenue and E. 204th Street on Halloween. One of those businesses, Bainbridge Bakery, suffered a fire in April 2009. The basement of Norwood’s Lutheran Church of the Epiphany burned in January 2009.
The Foodtown employed some 40 people, since reassigned to other supermarkets in the chain. It underwent a complete renovation in mid-2009 and earned applause from Norwood residents when it reopened.
The Katz family, proprietors of the Norwood supermarket since 1956, announced it would rebuild and expand the day after the fire, on December 22.
“We have a long term lease on the site and we have already hired architects and engineers to begin the process of building a brand new store,” Daniel Katz said.
Katz promised that the family would rebuild as fast as possible but demolition had yet to begin on Tuesday, January 26, Norwood residents complained at a CB7 meeting.
New York City Bureau of Fire Investigation North Commander William T. Law explained that a demolition permit had only been acquired on January 26, due to an insurance dispute.
The Katz family has encouraged Norwood shoppers to buy groceries online at www.foodtown.com, by telephone at (718) 293-3032 or at Pricebusters on E. 204th Street. Online deliveries are $3, free for purchases of $50 or more.
Perry, for one, is frustrated. Pricebusters has yet to offer Foodtown products or Foodtown prices, he said. Single seniors rarely buy $50 in groceries, Perry added.
The Foodtown customer hotline is (914) 667-3346.
Reach reporter Daniel Beekman at 718 742-3383 or dbeekman@cnglocal.com
