Liquor License From Ill-Fated Brick Supermarket Will Go Back Out to Bid (Updated)

Corrado’s Market, Brick, N.J., June 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

Correction: An earlier version of this story indicated the license was not paid-for. Corrado’s did, indeed, pay for the license but did not complete the paperwork to secure it.

The liquor license that was supposed to have been held by Corrado’s Market will go back out to bid tonight.

Corrado’s, a family-owned chain of supermarkets in North Jersey, announced in 2019 that it would be opening a location in Brick in the space formerly occupied by the Pathmark supermarket. Three years later, Corrado’s was anticipating a July 4 grand opening when – just weeks before – a court ruled that the store would be evicted from the Laurel Square shopping center over nonpayment of reportedly more than $1 million in rent. Corrado’s successfully bid $575,000 for a liquor distribution (retail sales) license shortly after announcing the new location.

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“They purchased the liquor license but never finished the paperwork, or came to pick it up,” said Mayor John Ducey. “We didn’t really think much of it because we assumed they would come in and finalize everything before opening the store.”

Corrado’s did pay for the license, but did not pick it up, Ducey said. With the revelation that Corrado’s would not be opening in Brick, officials decided to re-bid the license. The township council is expected to pass a resolution accepting bids at Tuesday night’s meeting.

“Basically, we’re going out to bid again, with the same exact parameters,” said Ducey.

The conditions of the bidding process were numerous, regulating the location and other aspects of prospective businesses that would be eligible to bid. Specifically, the regulations call for the business to be located in the northern portion of Brick, defined as the area north of the Metedeconk River. In addition to the geographic requirement, a store owner would have to open in a “vacant, existing building” located within a shopping center. It would also have to be located in the B-3 commercial zone and at least a half-mile away from any other liquor store.

Though the original minimum bid was set at $525,000, the new floor will be $575,000 since that was the high bid in the previous process.