Another grocer eyed to replace Community Supermarket in Harrison Heights plaza, owner says

Another grocery store is being sought to replace Community Supermarket in the Harrison Heights plaza, a spokesman for the owner of the plaza told TribLive.

Benbrooke Development asset manager Richard Lubkin said his company will seek a grocery tenant to fill Community Supermarket’s location in the plaza.

It’s the latest challenge for the firm, which handles properties across the country, as about 70% of the 360,000 square feet of commercial space was vacant in the plaza, including former Dunham’s and Big Lots locations.

A fitness center, medical offices and a fast food restaurant remain as Benbrooke looks to breathe new life into the 70-year-old shopping center by demolishing part of it to make way for apartments. Those plans were announced in February.

Community Supermarket general manager George Sears lamented closing the location.

“This one was tough,” Sears said.

Owners Howard Rosenberg and George Thimons are eyeing a late-October closing.

They plan to offer jobs to the 30 people who work at the Harrison store at the Community Supermarkets in Lower Burrell, Penn Hills and Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood. Those stores will remain open.

“We’re hoping they go to one of our other stores,” Sears said.

Rosenberg and Thimons bought the store in 2002 when there were no other grocers in Harrison.

Community became a staple for neighbors in the Harrison Hi-Rise and Sheldon Park, both Allegheny County-run housing developments, and others who are without transportation. Walmart opened about six years later in the Highlands Mall shopping center near Harrison Hills Park.

Community Supermarket property is leased from Giant Eagle, according to Jannah Drexler, Giant Eagle public relations manager, but Community Market is responsible for decisions regarding store operations.

“Community Market has been a subtenant at the Heights Plaza Shopping Center space for a number of years, and we were disappointed to learn of the plans to close the Harrison Community Market,” Drexler said.

Sears attributed the store’s closure to a combination of factors that include a change in the supermarket landscape and increased competition in the area.

He said the store has been struggling for a few years.

“Walmart didn’t help us,” he said. “The talk of Aldi coming obviously played a part, too.”

Aldi has been planning a move into Harrison for about three years. The discount grocery giant has a store across the river on Tarentum Bridge Road and submitted development plans to Harrison officials last year. The company plans to build a new store at the site of the former Harbison Nursery, across the street from Walmart.

Aldi did not return calls for comment Thursday.

Community’s customers were dismayed at the closure.

Terri Tarasi lives about the same distance from Community Supermarket as she does from the Walmart in Harrison.

It will take her a few minutes longer to get to Giant Eagle in New Kensington.

“Community is the only place I shop,” said Tarasi, of the township’s Natrona neighborhood.

“The only other place is Golden Dawn in New Ken, and they’re gonna tear up the Tarentum Bridge next year, so that’s out,” she said.

When Community closes, some people will be left with no viable option for a walkable grocery store.

There are no sidewalks along portions of Freeport Road, making Walmart challenging for pedestrians, and the Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus route doesn’t stop at Walmart.

Mike Bieranoski and Ann Zajdel, both residents of the Harrison Hi-Rise near the store, said the closing will make this tougher for the majority of people in the building.

“You have everyone here and a lot of people in Sheldon Park that don’t drive,” Zajdel said. “I feel bad about it, but there’s nothing you can do, I guess.”

Bieranoski said he shops regularly at Community for his 94-year-old neighbor. She would have no other way to get groceries, he said.

“This is a shame,” he said.

Harrison Township commissioners did not return requests for comment, nor did the Allegheny County Housing Authority.

Brackenridge resident John Scovern said he stops at Community Supermarket pretty regularly because it’s close to home. The store closing, he said, will be “no good.”

“You gotta go a little further now,” he said.

Related:

• Community Supermarket in Harrison set to close
• Heights Plaza owners plan resurgence: 'Despite challenges, it can still be community center'
• Retail revival: What it takes to bring shopping plazas back to life