A&P Gets OK to Turn Over Leases

The now-bankrupt Northeastern supermarket operator A&P has received approval from the judge overseeing its Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection process to turn over almost three dozen leases of unsold stores to the locations’ landlords, according to published reports. Turning over the leases will enable the landlords to lease the space to new tenants.

Judge Robert D. Drain OK’d A&P’s request to reject the majority of its remaining leases, including the one for its Montvale, N.J., corporate headquarters. The lease rejections, which aim to lower A&P’s expenses, will be applied retroactively to the end of December.

The rejected leases include various locations in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

“We now have the freedom to market the space to whomever we want to,” Steve Appas, leasing director for Serota Properties, landlord of a former Waldbaum’s in Stony Brook, N.Y., told Newsday, a newspaper covering New York’s Long Island, once home to 51 A&P-operated stores. “As for any future tenants, we are already in discussions with many different retailers of all shapes, sizes and uses.”

Last month, PG reported on A&P’s filing to reject its remaining leases.