Emotions Run High At Town Hall About Key Food Closure

Hundreds of residents of the city’s Mitchell Lama public housing co-ops and the surrounding neighborhood turned out for an “emergency” town hall meeting inside the Ryerson Towers this past Monday, February 23, in the hopes of finding out whether a replacement supermarket will be included as part of the mixed-income housing development that will take over the site of the current Key Food market at 325 Lafayette Avenue.

They didn’t leave comforted.

Landlord Richard Grobman told the crowd that although his “expectations are that we will have a nice supermarket that you’re happy about,” whether in the form of keeping the current Key Food or replacing it with a new market, “it’s my job to find an operator that services the community.”

He stated that he and real estate developer Slate Property Group are currently in talks with “interested parties,” but also wouldn’t commit to guaranteeing that a market would actually be a part of the plan.

These statements echoed earlier statements by Slate’s Principal David Schwartz to Crain’s.

Leslie Sierra, president of the Pratt Towers Board of Directors, said that she hopes a supermarket is included because the senior population — and greater Clinton Hill neighborhood — needs it.

“The three Mitchell Lama buildings along Lafayette Ave have very large senior populations, where would they shop if Key Food closes,” asked Sierra. “I’m physically able to [walk or drive]somewhere else, but what about seniors and those with disabilities?”

Sierra also expressed confusion at the logistics of bringing more people into the neighborhood while removing crucial amenities such as access to supermarkets, hardware stores, laundry services — the New Lucky Laundromat next door may also be a casualty of the development — and other small businesses.

“I’m perplexed,” she said. “There are a lot more buildings, but no additional services.”

State Senator Velmanette Montgomery also expressed a desire that any food market on the site be welcoming to the local “black and brown communities.”

As noted in the Brooklyn Paper, her controversial statement insinuated that white gentrifiers have different food needs and wants than the communities of color who live in the Mitchell Lama co-ops and surrounding blocks.

“Supermarkets are an important part of the community. It’s an important amenity, especially for black and brown communities,” she said. “When you’re talking about a white community, it can be a little boutique, because white people don’t eat the way we do.”

Montgomery later told CBS 2 that she “didn’t mean to offend anyone.”

Controversial comments aside, the concern about the loss of a crucial community resource is very real and Public Advocate Letitia James, Assemblymember Walter Mosley, and Councilmember Laurie Cumbo maintained that the community needs to be kept in the loop about changes to the site — despite the fact that the owners and developer are under no legal obligation to do so.

James emphasized that even she, a high-ranking city official and regular customer of the Key Food at Lafayette Avenue, didn’t find out about the impending closure — which still doesn’t have a timetable for closure — until a fellow shopper told her the rumor and the owners confirmed to her that “they had lost their lease.”

A second town hall will be held in April at a location TBD. The purpose of this second meeting, according to Mosley, will be to organize a Community Task Force that will liaise with the site’s landlord and developers.