Md. firm buys infamous Bridgeport Stop & Shop
BRIDGEPORT — A monument to the city’s corrupt past has a new owner.
LT Bridgeport, a limited liability corporation with an address in Owings Mills, Md., recently paid U.S. Bank $1.1 million for the vacant Stop & Shop supermarket on Madison Avenue, in an otherwise mostly residential North End neighborhood.
Built in the 1990s on the Dewhirst Dairy land by developers Alfred Lenoci Sr. and Alfred Lenoci Jr., the controversial store sparked an FBI corruption investigation. That probe sent Mayor Joe Ganim to federal prison in 2003 for seven years for operating a paytoplay scheme out of City Hall that included the Lenocis’ United Properties firm.
The Lenocis were jailed on bribery charges related to the Ganim case, though the Stop & Shop project was not among those charges.
The site was appraised in 2018 at $12.6 million, according to the same tax assessor
records that recorded the sale.
LT Bridgeport’s plans were not immediately known and the company could not be reached Tuesday.
Ganim waged a political comeback and was reelected in 2015. He won another fouryear term last week.
The nearly 68,000squarefoot store and its grounds have been a constant source of concern for neighbors since the Madison Avenue site closed in 2012 and its condition began to deteriorate. U.S. Bank foreclosed on the property in 2017, according to city records.
The supermarket’s siding has faded, as has the plywood used to protect the large glass windows. On Tuesday a maintenance worker was reattaching a few large pieces of plywood that had either fallen off or been removed.
It is common for police to respond to complaints about youths riding illegal dirt bikes and allterrain vehicles on the grounds.
Just two weeks ago at a wellattended community meeting with elected officials, several residents wondered what, if anything, would ever replace the Stop & Shop.
“It’s just sitting there. I know,” Ganim had told the crowd.
Also present that evening was City Councilwoman Michelle Lyons, who represents the North End. Lyons on Tuesday said she just learned the Stop & Shop was purchased. She hoped the new owner will eventually meet with residents.
“Let the neighborhood have a say in what goes into their neighborhood,” Lyons said, adding a recreational use like soccer or indoor tennis would be a good fit. “We need something in that area that could enhance the neighborhood. Something to make it smile.”
Bridgeport’s Office of Planning & Economic Development said it had fielded inquiries from unidentified parties about converting the supermarket into either a workout facility or for indoor soccer games.
Some North End residents frustrated with the impact the growing Sacred Heart University in Fairfield has had on their neighborhood have speculated the school was eyeing the Stop & Shop.
But Deb Noack, Sacred Heart’s communications director, in a statement for this story said, “Sacred Heart University has no interest in the Stop & Shop property, although we would love to see redevelopment — if for no other reason than to keep blight from spreading to nearby residential neighborhoods and businesses.”
Wandra Nkwo, who has lived in the North End for over 20 years, recalled while walking her dog nearby her lovehate relationship with the Stop & Shop. The
Lenocis built it on the former Dewhirst Dairy despite intense opposition.
“I liked the quietness of the neighborhood,” Nkwo said of the neighborhood before the supermarket. “(Madison Avenue) didn’t have so many cars.”
But, Nkwo admitted, she eventually purchased groceries at the controversial store and “missed it when it was gone.”
Michael Giannotti was a reporter for the Connecticut Post when the Lenocis obtained the OK from the Planning and Zoning Commission.
“(Public hearings) went on for weeks and weeks and hundreds of hours of testimony and thousands speaking in opposition,” Giannotti recalled Tuesday. He said the resultant outcry and accusations that “the fix was in” caught the FBI’s attention.
When Lenoci Sr. was sentenced in 2003, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Apter disclosed allegations of other payoffs by the developer, including $30,000 to an unidentified Bridgeport planning and zoning official in connection with a Stop & Shop.
But no other information was ever made public and Lenoci’s attorney at the time claimed his client, rather than offering a bribe, was approached by someone on behalf of the unnamed Bridgeport official and extorted.
Just as the city eventually welcomed Ganim back into office, the North End got used to the Stop & Shop.
“It was very, very good,” Irina Dedenko said as she walked by the site Tuesday.