No Hannaford Supermarket For New Lebanon

by Thaddeus Flint
Hannaford is pulling out. The Town of New Lebanon has found that oasis on its desert horizon to be nothing more than a mirage. The Hannaford Supermarket will not be that hope of the Town’s administration and its residents of a way to get out of the “food desert,” the term used to describe a community with no easy access to fresh and healthy produce.
In an announcement Tuesday executives of the Hannaford Corporation in Scarborough, ME, said there will not be a new 24,000 square foot supermarket and pharmacy built in New Lebanon.
“In the months since announcing the proposed store, Hannaford has developed more detailed information on the required level of investment; we feel it is in the best business decision to withdraw our application at this point. We did not take this decision lightly, and we appreciate the community support this proposal has received,” said Michael Norton, company spokesperson in a prepared statement Tuesday.
New Lebanon Town Supervisor, Margaret Robertson, who had said in an April 8 article in the Eastwick Press, “The light at the end of our tunnel remains the oasis called Hannaford,” was not available by press time to respond to this latest development. An email by New Lebanon Town Clerk, Colleen Teal, on Tuesday stated, “Sadly, this email is to confirm what many of you are hearing. Hannaford did withdraw their application today and will not be proceeding with their plans to build a store in New Lebanon.”
The Lebanon Valley Business Association (LVBA), which was instrumental earlier this year in keeping the company in the area, has already re-activated its website www.saveoursupermarket.com in a effort to counter these new hurdles. “We do know that there are many people in New Lebanon and surrounding towns who were counting on the arrival of the supermarket and are devastated by its loss. That’s why we are ready to sponsor a new letter writing campaign. This way you can let the parties involved know how important you think it is for them to find a solution,” a posting said Tuesday. “It may be that a letter writing campaign will help, as it has in the past… readers produced fast and spectacular response when the supermarket was threatened before.”
“In my thinking, all is never lost,” wrote Fiona Lally of the LVBA in an September 14 email interview, “I have no doubt but that Hannaford did everything they could to make this proposal work; they put great effort and goodwill into it. We know they wanted to be here, and they know how very much we want them. They encountered a pinch point in their development plans, and we are working now to see if it’s possible to assess what that was and find some way to alleviate it. We hope Hannaford will continue to consider solutions with us and hope that a letter writing campaign will show them what that consideration would mean to New Lebanon. LVBA will not give up on a market for our town.”
“Hannaford shouldn’t be blamed for this sad news,” agreed New Lebanon resident Joanna Johnson-Smith, alluding towards the responsibility of the owners of the property, Brauser Group #4, a real estate development company based in New York City. “They [Hannaford] went above and beyond to help us get this store.”