Struggling Boston Market cooked by Long Island evictions

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Behind on its lease and different payments, Boston Market was evicted from one other of its Lengthy Island eating places Wednesday. 

The Suffolk County Sheriff evicted the corporate from the constructing at 2170 Jericho Turnpike in Commack after the property’s landlord was fed up with the tenant’s failure to satisfy its obligations. 

The Boston Market in Commack is the newest of its Lengthy Island eating places to be evicted, following a number of others in Nassau and Suffolk counties over the previous yr, and there are doubtless extra to come back. 

Landlords of the retail properties that Boston Market was leasing right here on Lengthy Island have been compelled to kick them out for nonpayment of lease. The restaurant was evicted from its New Hyde Park location just a few months in the past. 

“They owed us over a yr’s value of lease,” mentioned Jordan Sanders, a principal of Sanders Equities, which owns the property. “They didn’t even inform their workers about what was occurring, so when the sheriff confirmed up it was fairly unhappy for the employees.” 

Backyard Metropolis-based Breslin Group had the same expertise at its West Hempstead property, as Boston Market’s lease funds first turned erratic, and the tenant ultimately turned noncompliant, in response to a Breslin spokesman. The owner was compelled to evict them from the restaurant property on Hempstead Turnpike this summer time and is looking for to gather the again lease. 

Boston Market was additionally evicted from the property at 23 West Primary St. in East Islip this summer time, after it had occupied the restaurant since 1995. 

“We had been chasing them for lease for the final two years and they’d pay proper earlier than we’d have terminated their lease,” mentioned Walter Morris, principal of the property’s Huntington-based proprietor WDP Enterprises. “It was at all times going by the courts. They stopped paying lease round January and we evicted them for nonpayment.” 

WDP has since leased the three,000-square-foot East Islip restaurant to Tex’s Hen and Burgers, which is anticipated to open by the top of the yr. 

The Boston Market has been having points in different areas as properly. The chain ran afoul of the legislation in August after the New Jersey Division of Labor and Workforce Improvement issued stop-work orders at 27 Boston Market areas in New Jersey after discovering a number of violations of employees’ rights, together with greater than $600,000 in again wages owed to 314 employees, in response to a NJDOL assertion. The corporate ultimately paid the again wages to its workers and the shops have been allowed to reopen. 

Boston Market’s headquarters in Golden, Colo. was seized in Could by native authorities for owing greater than $300,000 in gross sales and payroll taxes, which the corporate has since paid and regained management of the workplaces. However there have been extra indicators of hassle as most of the chain’s areas are closing, have been deserted, or have been compelled to inventory their shops with grocery store meals as vendor contracts run out, in response to Nation’s Restaurant Information. 

The corporate has been slapped with a number of lawsuits from former workers and unpaid distributors all through the nation, with claims that Boston Market collectively owes them greater than $12 million, in response to printed experiences. 

First often called Boston Hen, the chain was launched in Newton, Mass. in 1985 and was renamed Boston Market in 1995. After speedy growth, the corporate filed for chapter in 1998 and was bought by fast-food large McDonald’s Company two years later. McDonald’s offered Boston Market to Solar Capital Companions in 2007 and Solar offered it to its current proprietor Have interaction Manufacturers, a subsidiary of Rohan Group in 2020. 

As soon as boasting greater than 1,200 areas nationwide, Boston Market is all the way down to round 300 and restaurant trade observers say it’s only a matter of time earlier than the chain disappears fully. 

Firm executives have been unable to be reached for remark.