Big, brightly colored signs saying “new supermarket coming soon” and promising to bring “fresh food back to the community” have appeared in the first-floor windows of 205 Smith Street in recent days.
“I really hope it’s a decent grocery store. We could really use it,” said a local who tipped off Brooklyn Paper’s sister website Brownstoner to the new signs.
There was an outcry in 2014 when new owners revealed they planned to demolish the building and Met Food would close. Later that year, instead of razing the one-story structure, the developers filed plans to add a floor and change the facade. In 2015, workers at the site said it would be a grocery store, but the bottom floor has remained empty.
Currently, Lenox Hill Radiology occupies the top story. It appears that the new supermarket will be located in one of the ground floor retail spaces, while another space, on the corner of Baltic and Smith, looks to soon be home to a Bank of America branch, based on signs hanging in the windows.
Alex Adjmi, a developer who was pardoned by former President Trump after serving 44 months in prison between 1996 and 2000 for his involvement in a money-laundering scheme, is listed as the owner on building permits. Jackson Group, Aurora Capital Associates and ACHS Management bought the building for $18.5 million in 2014.
Marcelo Klajnbart of ACHS Management, the leasing agent on the project, and Adjmi did not respond to a request for comment.
This story originally appeared on Brooklyn Paper’s sister site Brownstoner.
