A decision in a Delaware bankruptcy court to determine whether the sale of the former Fresh & Easy store in the small shopping center at 955 Catalina Blvd. in Point Loma is legal has been postponed until mid-February.
“There was a Jan. 13 court hearing in Delaware, and the judge approved the sale of four other (Fresh & Easy) locations, but has reset, until Feb. 18, a hearing on this one,” said Andrew Greene, a Point Loman with a downtown San Diego law practice.
Though not professionally engaged, Greene said he is personally interested in the fate of the site, which has become controversial with many Peninsulans registering, via online petition, their preference for an independent grocer rather than a CVS pharmacy on that site.
“There are more than 2,600 signatures now on the online petition at Change.org in about a month,” Greene noted.
Fresh & Easy, a Southern California convenience grocery store chain, recently closed its eight locations in San Diego County, including its Catalina Boulevard site. The company noted an “organized wind-down” after a failed reorganization as the reason for the closures.
Greene said it was uncertain which direction the Delaware court would go with the former Point Loma Fresh & Easy location, given that the judge approved the sale of the other four sites. He pointed out, however, that there was no public opposition to the sale of those other sites, while noting many Peninsulans are uniting against a grocery store there.
Native Point Loman Steve Avoyer of Flock and Avoyer commercial real estate, the exclusive leasing agent known as Catalina-Talbot LLC for the former Point Loma Fresh & Easy site, said his firm is opposed to the site’s being used as a pharmacy, not a grocery store.
“We have always wanted a market there,” said Avoyer. “The site has been a Food Basket and a Lucky and an Albertsons before it was a Fresh & Easy. It’s been a market since 1952. We think it should stay a market.”
Pointing out the Catalina Fresh & Easy was “one of the most profitable in the entire chain,” Avoyer said that demonstrates it’s a viable location for a market.
“We’re fighting them (CVS) tooth and nail,” Avoyer said. “We’ll probably end up in Delaware bankruptcy court in February to make our point of view known in open court.”
The tenant mix in the 2-plus-acre shopping center site includes a local pharmacy, Point Loma Cabrillo Drug, as well as a Subway, Cup of Yo and Peet’s Coffee & Tea.
The center was constructed in 2005 and 2006 and was meant to be anchored by a grocery store, Catalina-Talbot said, pointing out it was the only grocery store within two miles.
Catalina-Talbot is claiming the lease with Fresh & Easy, signed in 2006, was for the “operation of a retail grocery store.”