Two show interest in buying markets
Tops will decide on Sheffield, Y’ville storesBy COLIN KYLER ckyler@timesobserver.com
The Quality Markets stores in Youngsville and Sheffield have potential buyers if the new owner, Tops Markets, decides to sell them.
Tops, headquartered in Williamsville, N.Y. with locations in western and central New York and northwestern Pennsylvania, purchased 79 stores owned by Penn Traffic including the two Quality stores in the county in Bankruptcy Court in January.
Kathy Reitinger, coordinator of the Warren County Regional Main Street program, said last week that she has been in contact with Tops and let company officials know that two buyers were interested in the stores.
One is Bill Thorne, Reitinger said, who owns Thorne's BiLo in Warren; the other is Mike Sahli, co-owner of Polly's ShurSave in Tidioute.
Until the stores are on the market, Sahli said, there is nothing more he can do, adding that he is a firm believer in small towns and the fact that they all need grocery stores.
Sahli emhasized that he has not actively pursued buying one of the stores nor has he contacted anyone at Tops, which is in the process of shaking out the stores it doesn't want to keep.
Reitinger said she doesn't want either store to close as they would be hard to re-open and would result in lost jobs.
Reitinger said she has also made Tops aware of work which will begin soon on Youngsville's Streetscape project, which will start on Railroad Street where the store is located.
Reitinger said she has also been in contact with the Northwest Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission, which has programs to help potential buyers.
Daryl Coyne, loan programs manager for the commission, said the state Small Business First loan program can finance supermarkets. It will finance 50 percent of eligible project costs, up to $200,000.
The stores must sell farm products and be operated on a self-serve basis, Coyne said, adding that eligible stores must serve an area with residents of low or moderate income and with below-average super market density.
A store closing which would leave a town without another place to buy food would be a good argument for securing the loan, Coyne said.
The commission packages the loan and takes it before its loan committee, Coyne said, and if approved it is sent to Harrisburg where the final decision is made by the Commonwealth Financing Authority.
Messages left at Tops headquarters and for Bill Thorne on Monday afternoon were not returned.
