The Failure Of The Maywood Market

thevillagewatchdog
Nov 14, 2024
5 min read

Opened April 2010- Closed 2011

THE EULOGY

"Dear Heavenly Father,

We are gathered here today in remembrance of the Maywood Market. Although it had only been with us for a very short time, we wanted you to know that we dearly miss it. Each day as we drive by the site of both her life and sadly her death, we can’t help but to wonder what happened. Wonder why a grocery store with so much potential was taken away from us before its time. As we pass by her remains on fifth avenue on countless occasions, we can’t stop but to think about all that she had to offer. The convenience of having her in the heart of our community, the access to fresh produce and even her ability to lure potential investors into Maywood, are only a few of things that makes our loss so devastating. In closing, we know that we can n ever bring her back but we really need to know what really was her cause of death?"

As a long-time resident over the last ten years, I have heard countless people speculate on what really caused the closure of the Maywood Market. Some attributed its' abrupt closure to the lack of support from local residents. Others theorized that they went out of business because their prices were simply too high and that the quality of their products were also subpar. Another very common perception was that the location of the store just wasn't located in an area that experienced a high enough volume of traffic in order to entice residents outside of Maywood to support their store. Thus, without that additional source of revenue that business simply wasn't able to survive. So, in retrospect although many of those issues may have contributed somewhat to their business being slower than expected, ultimately that is not what actually killed the Maywood Market.

THE MONEY

In order for us to understand where things went wrong, we first need to talk about all the key players and the suspect deal that was eventually made. In the late 2000's the Village of Maywood was approach by an investor who expressed interests in opening up a grocery store in Maywood. Just like a lot of grocery stores, one of the major expenses that they would have incurred would have been directly related to their start-up costs. For example, even before they would have been able to open for business, the grocery store's owner would have had to have renovated the store, purchased inventory and also would've hired staff. Grocery stores themselves usually have a very small profit margin of roughly 2-3 %. So even before they opened their doors for business or even could have had a chance to have turned a profit, they would have had to have spent money upfront in order to cover those expenses.

That's why in order to attract certain businesses to a community, local governments will sometimes offer big box stores various tax incentives, in encourage them to invest in their community. Some of those incentives come in the form of Tax Increment Financing better known as TIF. What is TIF you might ask ? TIF ultimately means that every time you pay your property taxes, a certain percentage of your tax dollar are saved in something called a TIF District. So for example if the Village of Maywood were to establish a 5th Avene TIF District then those tax dollars save in the 5 th Avenue TIF can then be used to subsidize redevelopment of that area, creation of new infrastructure and other community-improvement projects. With the ultimate goal of helping to rebuild blighted or neglected areas in communities like ours.

THE DEAL

In the mid to late 2000's the Village of Maywood was approached by an investor who expressed interests in opening up a grocery in Maywood. Shortly after doing so, both the Village of Maywood and let's call him investor "X" entered into a contractual agreement. As part of that agreement in exchange for investor X opening a grocery store on 5 th Avenue, the Village of Maywood agreed to offer a little financial assistance. And when I say a little, I use that term "little" very loosely, as you are about to see. As a condition of their contract the Village of Maywood agreed to give investor X 1.2-1.5 million dollars which would be funded by Maywood taxpayers via our TIF District(s). Now here's where things really get sketchy. Another condition of the contract specified that the Village of Maywood was obligated to secure over 1.5 million dollars in loans on behalf of investor X. Yep you heard me right ! Oh and just when you thought it couldn't get any worse here comes red flags number 3, 4 ,5 and possibly even number 6. The Village of Maywood also agreed to cosign that loan(s) and serve as the guarantor. Which ultimately meant that if investor X were to ever have defaulted on any on their loans, then the Village of Maywood would be held 100 % liable for any and all outstanding debt. So I will give you one guess what eventually happened. Yes, less than two years after opening their doors investor X defaulted on their loans, filed for bankruptcy and simple just walked away never to be heard from again. Thus, leaving the Village of Maywood but more importantly leaving all of us taxpayers holding the bag.

THE END

In the end not only did the Village of Maywood lose our tax dollars but they were also eventually sued by the bank due to non-payment. Which ultimately caused the Village to have to expend additional resources to cover the cost of legal fees, $60,000 worth of interest along with numerous other additional expenses. Not mention shortly after the closure of the Maywood Markert the store was vandalized to the tune of over $250,000 worth of repairs. To this very day the Village still has to pay to maintain the exterior of the property and its adjacent lot. They also at one time was paying thousands of annually in order to cover the cost of security panels, currently in place over the doors and windows. In closing, I think that it is very important that we view the Maywood Market as a cautionary tale, as to what can potentially happen when our local government makes financially irresponsible decisions on our behalf. That being said, if you want to read more about this story, please check out the article that I linked below. Also, I will be writing a follow-up article about the proposed opening of a store in the Interfaith building on 5 th Avenue. I will attempt to address what we should expect and more importantly will the residents of Maywood show up to support and patronize that store.