Mr. Albrecht, Where's Our Grocery Store - Albrecht Sends Attorneys to Make Peace

Albrecht Too Busy for Highland Square, Sends Attorneys as Peace Envoy?

Starting this Tuesday, March 24th, and continuing on April 7th, 16th and 22nd, the attorneys for Albrecht Inc. will be holding public forums at the Highland Square Library. These forums will address the grocery store issue, as well as raise questions about the future of the theater. We are encouraging every member of the community to attend these forums and make their disappointment, worries, and outrage known.

Running up to the first forum on Tuesday, members of the neighborhood have been approached by Albrecht Inc’s attorneys who provided a preview of their message. It can be boiled down to this:

We gave it our best shot, but no grocers were interested because there is not enough demand for a grocery store in Highland Square.

Of course, interviews by the Highland Square Neighborhood Association of grocers over the past few years tell a different story. The grocers told us that they were interested, but Albrecht Inc. manipulated the negotiations, wasting the grocer’s time and dooming any chance of them signing a contract with Albrecht Inc. Now, three years later, our community is still waiting for a grocery store.

During our talks with the attorney for Albrecht Inc, there were several mentions of demolishing the buildings on the south side of Market Street, including the theater. After fighting so hard to save the theater from demolition in 2007, these comments are offensive to a community that has already made it clear that destroying the theater is not an option.

There is, however, a reason for the community to be optimistic. To this day, Albrecht Inc. does not have a signed lease for the grocery store’s lot. They went as far as to build a building for themselves on public land for which they had no lease. According to a high level city official, the city has told Albrecht Inc. to either get a grocery store for Highland Square or remove his building from our land.

Albrecht Inc. has had its chance to bring a grocery store to Highland Square, and it failed. Now they tell us that there is not enough demand for a grocery store. We need everyone at the library on Tuesday so we can make it clear to Albrecht that there is a demand and we have had enough of their gamesmanship. We need to make it clear to the City that Albrecht should not be rewarded for failure by granting them a lease for our land. We need to show everyone that Highland Square residents will always fight for their neighborhood. Come out and be heard on March 24th.