Buying in

An LLC headed by the new SuperFresh food store’s owner paid $8.55 million in August for the Lincoln Boulevard property the business sits on.

Various online real estate sites have listed the August transaction. Some identify the new owner as Middlesex Supermarket Owner, LLC. Others – like the Middlesex Borough web site – list Middlesex Operating Urban Renewal, LLC.

Hi Jong “Howard” Lee signed the formation paperwork for both LLC’s that is available on the state Department of the Treasury web site. Lee, who was identified as the business owner, cut the ribbon at the store’s Oct. 20 opening along with Mayor John Madden.

The purchase price paid by Lee and other records suggest that the value of the 3.9-acre property on which SuperFresh sits has risen sharply in recent years.

The tax payment page on the municipal web site shows the property’s assessed value at $4,445,800. That appears to be the value set in the borough’s recent revaluation.

A price history posted on one real estate records site shows the supermarket property’s value falling and rising in the past 25 years or so.

The supermarket property is subject to a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement negotiated in 2017 with the developer of The View high-rise next door. The high-rise shares a parking lot with the SuperFresh.

The municipality received just under $50,000 in PILOT revenue from the supermarket property in 2022, when it was vacant, according to this year’s borough budget. A similar amount is shown as anticipated revenue in 2023, but could be adjusted now that the store is again occupied.

After opening as a ShopRite in 1968, the store operated as a Pathmark from 1984 to 2015. It reopened as Price Saver for six months in 2019, but had been vacant since then until SuperFresh’s October opening.

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