Planned D'Agostino's Closure Draws Concern

"Our leaving would have a large impact on the community," said Alan Zayas, the manager of the D'Agostino's located just south of 110th Street. "It's out of our hands though. Columbia owns the lease, so they call the shots."

If Columbia continues with its proposed plan for a K-8 school and faculty housing on the southeast corner of Broadway and 110th Street, D'Agostino's will be finishingthe final months of 13 years at the same site. The supermarket may close as early as July if the University receives approval for its project, when at least 18 months of construction on the new building would commence. Under current plans, the University's 12-story building will demolish the store and reconstruct the retail space.

The loss of the market has become a major concern for many local residents, but it has become the mission of Hildress Waltzer, a resident of west 116th Street, to keep D'Agostino's available to her neighbors.

"I haven't the foggiest idea what I'll do if the store closes," said Waltzer. "I don't have a solution. If I did, I wouldn't be involved in this."

During two weeks this winter, Waltzer collected over 1,000 signatures from local residents protesting the store's closing. She contends that the University's plans will only exacerbate a prevalent problem with a shortage of markets available to residents of Morningside Heights.

Waltzer says that she recognizes the University's need to create housing for its faculty and has no problem with its proposed school, but as she says, "We just want our food."

Building above D'Agostino's

Some residents contend that the University is not taking into serious consideration the possibility of building a new structure above D'Agostino's without demolishing or closing the market.

The two-story building, however, in which D'Agostino's is located was constructed over 30 years ago and was not built with the capability of supporting a vertical expansion or additional loads.

In order to support 10 additional floors, a substantial amount of support would have to be constructed for the building's reinforcement.

"It is our professional opinion that, while feasible, building above the existing supermarket should not be attempted without giving due consideration to the very serious safety, cost, and scheduling implications," wrote Carlos M. Dobryn of Desimone Consulting Engineers in a letter to Beyer, Blinder, and Belle, the architectural firm overseeing the project.

John Beyer called a plan to build on top of the store "very complex and expensive," noting that the costs for constructing the additional supports could reach between six and eight million dollars and add six months to construction time.

"It just doesn't make sense to keep these old buildings," said Executive Vice President for Administration Emily Lloyd, whose office oversees all construction projects. "It's not a responsible use of the University's resources."

Even if the market were to remain open during construction, the D'Agostino's building layout already requires major renovations to its current design, which would require, in compliance with regulations of New York City's building codes and Department of Agriculture Division of Food Safety, that the market be closed during the four-to-six month construction.

Still, Waltzer said, in the interest of the community, the University should "change [its] design for the housing and school to accommodate the store, rather than vice versa."

Beyer responded that such a reconfiguration would present problems for the functioning of the school.

The Other Markets

The question at the heart of the controversy over D'Agostino's is whether maintaining the extra market in the community is worth the effort, time, and money to keep it there.

Some residents feel that the loss of the largest market in the area will severely affect the market for groceries, making demand much higher than the supply.

"Although this store might not warrant preservation as a landmark," said Waltzer, "it is a vitally needed source of food for thousands of people."

Having lived in Morningside Heights for over 40 years, Waltzer says has noticed a trend in the closing of grocery stores, particularly large ones.

According to a report done by Waltzer, nine grocery stores and supermarkets have closed in the area in the last 20 years. Four years ago, a large market--Cathedral Market--closed at a site close to D'Agostino's. Two years earlier, two other smaller markets closed on 110th Street. The popular Mama Joy's closed in the spring of 2000 and was replaced by Milano Market, which has a limited amount of grocery selections.

"Since I have been living here, there has always been at least one supermarket, and usually two, on opposite sides of [Broadway, between 109th and 110th]," wrote Waltzer in her study. "Were D'Agostino to close, for the first time there would be none."

Many of these failing grocery stores have been replaced by drug and convenience stores, which, despite a different line of products, have created much competition for the larger supermarkets.

"It's typical of areas like Morningside Heights to not support larger markets," said Lloyd, noting how the area is separated from its neighbors by parks, making it almost completely dependent on its own commercial resources. Lloyd said that an upsurge in drug stores and smaller markets that specialize in certain products like produce or fish have made the supermarkets less popular.

Some residents said they fear that a steep decrease in the number of supermarkets and an increase in specialty markets will result in a corresponding price increase.

"With the closing of one more market, prices are bound to go up in the two remaining ones," said Waltzer.

A survey done by the Spectator of about 15 of the most commonly bought items, however, found that D'Agostino's has the highest prices of the three major markets, sometimes acceding the other markets' prices by more than a dollar. While both University Food Market and Westside charges $1.29 for a pound of Grannysmith apples, for example, D'Agastino's charges $1.79. A box of four sticks of Land O' Lakes butter costs $3.49 at UFM and $3.99 at Westside, while D'Agastino's charges $4.69.

Overcrowding and

Phone Orders

Resident's concerns are not simply founded on the decreasing number of grocery stores, but also on the quality of those markets that remain.

"The current market predicament ... has reached monstrous proportions," said Waltzer. "The two markets that would remain, [UFM and Westside Market], are not only limited but are already extremely overcrowded."

While D'Agostino's, at 9000 square feet in size, is more than double the area of UFM, it serves half the customers on an average day, according to the managers of the two stores.

Although he was not able to give an exact number of customers the market serves each day, Westside Market Evening Manager John Anton, who approximated the store's area to be 6700 square feet, said that it is larger than D'Agostino's daily service.

"It's definitely a problem for us. We lose customers," said Anton. "If you were to walk by and see the long lines, you won't want to stop in here."

Anton said he could not judge the affect D'Agostino's closing would have on the business. He said that the store could reasonably expect an "excess of business," but added that it depends on the time of day customers come in.

With limited space, both Westside and UFM are known for having narrow aisles, often cluttered with boxes as customers vie for limited space. Milano Market's aisles are slightly more than a shoulder width wide.

"Westside market could use a little better organization," said Sam Lisi, a resident of 107th street who frequents the market. "It gets a little hectic with more than a few people."

D'Agostino's aisles are wide enough to accommodate two of its shopping carts side by side. By comparison, the aisles of UFM and Westside, whose shopping carts are less wide than those at D'Agostino's, can accommodate only one.

"There are many elderly whose mobility is limited," said Waltzer. "Many wheelchair-bound in D'Agostino's who can shop there in the wide aisles without constant risk of physical harm," she said, noting that the narrower aisles of the two other markets are also less accommodating to families with strollers.

But "It is our elderly and disabled who would suffer most" from the closing of D'Agostino's, said Waltzer. Many older residents in the neighborhood depend on D'Agostino's for phone orders, and are concerned that neither UFM or Westside provide them regularly.

Charlie Pastor, owner of UFM, whose lease is also owned by the University, said his market often takes phone orders from University offices, and will sometimes do them for elderly or disabled residents in the neighborhood. But he added, "we don't have the facilities to do all of them. It's not a major part of my business."

According to a University survey, there are four supermarkets that take phone orders between 96th and 125th Streets, including Appletree Supermarket, Gristedes Mega Store Key Food, and Met V. Food [see graphic].

There are, however, several smaller markets--including health food and produce stores as well as delis--that also take phone orders, but only within a certain radius of their store, often five to 10 blocks.

In anticipation of D'Agostino's' closing, the University is looking into providing a shuttle bus for older shoppers. Though the idea is still in its formative stages, Lloyd said the shuttle would make a small number of stops within the neighborhood during peak shopping periods. The University is communicating with Fairway market, which previously ran a shuttle, but discontinued the service.

But Waltzer doesn't think this service would be of help. "What good is that? Who wants to shop by appointment?"

D'Ag's Returning

Despite the tension over D'Agostino's future, the University is still willing to accept the idea of the market returning to the space after construction.

"If they would like to come back, we would be happy to have them back," said Lloyd. Nicholas D'Agostino III, vice president of corporate administration, in a letter to Eric Nelson, chairman of Community Board 7, expressed similar expectations.

"We hope to be able to negotiate to return to this site after Columbia builds their new structure," he wrote.

Such negotiations have not been finalized, however, and the University has had conversations with other markets that have expressed interest in the site, Lloyd said. Lloyd added that in any case, the tenant would be an independently owned market or a New York chain, not a national chain.

"There's no denying that D'Agostino's' closing is going to impact the neighborhood. I don't think anyone would argue with that," said Jeremiah Stoldt, associate director of special programs for facilities management. "We're trying to make it a little bit easier."