Seasons Supermarket in Pikesville to Remain Open Under New Management

Pikesville’s Seasons Kosher Supermarket will remain open and operate under a new ownership, with a new, still-to-be-determined name, according to Shalom Rubashkin, one of the store’s prospective new owners.

Rubashkin, who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., is a former regional manager of Meat Mavens, which provides meat products that are sold at all Seasons supermarkets.

“This happened very fast,” said Rubashkin. “What happened was that a buyer bought up other Seasons stores, but they didn’t buy Baltimore for some reason. … It’s a beautiful, nice, clean store with good customer feedback, so we put together a group of businesspeople to buy the store.”

Rubashkin said the Pikeville store is currently being managed by the three new prospective owners, who are expected to close on the sale of the business next week.

The store’s current general manager, Zachary Richards, will remain in his job.

Rubashkin declined to divulge the selling price of the business.

“Our philosophy is to give great service, quality products at an affordable price,” he said. “We’ll be working hand in hand with the customers.”

The future of the 25,000-square-foot upscale store — formerly the site of an Office Depot — was murky after its Flushing, N.Y.-based parent company filed for bankruptcy last September with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York, just over a year since the market at 1630 Reisterstown Road opened.

Around the High Holiday season, rumors abounded that the Pikesville market was closing because its meat cases were empty and the prepared foods section was meager.

The kosher supermarket sells meats, dairy, bakery goods, deli, sushi, fish and floral arrangements. The meat and fish departments at Seasons in Pikesville are under the supervision of the Baltimore-based Star-K kosher certification group, as are most of the prepared foods in the store.

Rubashkin confirmed that the Pikesville Seasons will remain under Star-K certification, although the store may make changes in its inventory and design, depending on what customers request.

“The bakery might expand,” he said. “We might have a sit-down area to eat. … We’re considering all of that now.”

In a media statement released just after the bankruptcy filing, Seasons CEO Mayer Gold wrote, “In order to preserve and strengthen our ability to serve the local Seasons Family’s needs, we are focusing on emerging from the Chapter 11 filing with a stronger balance sheet and to fully restore operations.”

In the same statement, Gold announced that the company had received a private donation of $6 million that would make it possible for Seasons’ stores to continue operating. The Pikesville store has remained open despite the bankruptcy proceedings.

The Seasons chain, which was founded in 2013 and owns a total of eight stores located in New York, New Jersey and Baltimore, was $42 million in debt at the time of the filing and was hoping to sell the company for $12 million.