Paul Bass Photo
A new grocer is poised to reopen inside soon-to-close Ferraro’s Market, with the “Meat King” intact, according to the current owner.
The Ferraro family, which has run a food market in New Haven since 1952 through three generations of ownership, plans to move to North Haven at year’s end. (Read about that here.) The last day it plans to be open at its Grand Avenue location is Dec. 31, according to co-owner Peter Ferraro. (That’s a few days later than originally announced.)
The pending closing caused concern in town about lack of access to affordable groceries, especially for people without cars who live directly across the street at the Mill River Crossing public-housing development.
Peter Ferraro told the Independent Wednesday that he’s in the final stages of striking a deal with a New York business person to rent the building from the Ferraro family and continue to operate a grocery there.
By the market’s entrance.
“He’s going to try to run it the same way,” Ferraro said. Including using the Ferraro “Meat King” line of low-priced meats.
Ferraro didn’t identify the renter beyond his first name, “Hernando.” He said he’ll disclose more information after the two sides complete the last part of the deal this week involving completion of a due diligence phase, in which Hernando can “check the numbers and make sure everything we told him is correct, which I know it is.” All other paperwork has been signed, Ferraro said.
“He’s moving family up to New Haven, taking over our place. They specialize in meat in New York. He’s going to try to make it the same” in New Haven and open as soon as Jan. 1 “if everything goes as planned,” Ferraro said. “Down the road he’ll probably buy the building, too.”
Ferraro said he anticipates opening the new Ferraro’s location on Universal Drive in North Haven in February.
“It’ll be good for New Haven. Hopefully it’ll be good for North Haven,” Ferraro said.
The Ferraros moved their market from State Street to the current Grand Avenue location in 1973 during an earlier phase of redevelopment in the area.
City development chief Mike Piscitelli said the government has been in touch with Ferraro about the transition and the desire for a “responsible grocer” to continue operating at the site.
He has informed the Ferraros that the city is ready to fund any needed infrastructure work to help make the deal happen. The city would draw down on $900,000 reserved for the Grand Avenue-East Street commercial corridor in the deal to renovate the Mill River Crossing development (formerly Farnam Courts).
“It’s a loss to the city,” Piscitelli said of the Ferraros’ pending departure. “Generations of families have shopped there. My grandmother first took me there years and years ago. We all have a connection to the store.”
On the other hand, he noted, “the city has a long history of revitalizing and stepping forward.” The way, for instance, the former Lender bagel factory next to Ferraro’s was reborn into the “Something Sweet” pie factory that gives the block its aromatic buzz. And the way, if all goes according to plan, Mill River will have new locally owned food market.
Great News for New Haven!
(and thanks for clarifying the source of that most awesome smell that occasionally wafts through the parking lot -- I always thought it was cookies!)