Melissa Bailey Photo
Three months after losing its postal license, the Hall-Benedict Drug Company is now reeling from a second dose of bad news: An order from its landlord to leave the premises by Wednesday.
The venerable corner drugstore lost its post office license in November after store owner Jack Appelbaum passed away.
The Hall-Benedict Drug Company, which has stood at the corner of Linden and Orange streets since 1870, lost the license when Appelbaum died, and recently failed in an effort to have the license reinstated in the name of Appelbaum’s widow, Annette.
Now the store is launching a new battle — to fight an eviction notice served by its landlord, Formichella Associates LLC.
Uma Ramiah Photo
Employee Jeana Annunziata (pictured), who started working at Hall-Benedict five years ago this month, was working at the store Friday afternoon when a state marshal served the notice.
“A woman came in today around 3:30 and just handed it to me,” she said. “She was really nice about it, actually. Apologetic.”
The note had a sterner tone: It ordered the drugstore to vacate the premises by Feb. 9.
In the eviction notice, the landlord contends that the lease gives the landlord the right to terminate the lease upon the death of Jack Appelbaum unless Appelbaum transferred his majority ownership interest to someone else. Formichella wrote that because Appelbaum didn’t do that, the landlord ordered the lease be terminated as of Feb. 3. Since Hall-Benedict did not leave the building by that date, the landlord filed for eviction.
Click here to read the eviction notice.
Reached by phone Friday, Annette Appelbaum said she would fight the eviction in court. “It’s all up to the lawyers now.”
She took issue with a factual assertion in the eviction notice that contends that Jack Appelbaum never transferred his majority ownership to anyone else before his death.
Annette Appelbaum said she does, in fact, hold majority ownership. “I have legal documents that were signed and filed to prove it.”
The landlord, she said, tried to evict Hall-Benedict once in 2008. “History repeats itself,” she said. “They’re trying the same tactics.”
Diane Williams, listed as a partner in Formichella Associates LLC, could not be reached for comment for this article. Phone messages were left with a household member Friday and Monday.
The bad news comes on the heels of a rejection from the United States Postal Office (USPS), which had considered Appelbaum’s request to carry on the postal license in her name after her husband died. The store has served as a neighborhood post office for 100 years. After Jack Appelbaum bought the store in 1998, it operated as a “contractual postal unit,” or CPU, meaning he contracted with the USPS to serve as a postal outpost. The USPS provided the equipment and the counters and special walls for hanging envelopes; the drugstore provided the staff.
In 2010, there were 3,720 CPUs around the country, according to New England regional postal service spokeswoman Maureen Marion.
After Hall-Benedict lost the license, the USPS put it out to a public bid, Marion said. Bids were collected, with a postmark deadline of January 14, in the postal contracting headquarters in Denver.
On Jan. 26, Marion reported in an email that Hall-Benedict had struck out.
“No solicitation was accepted in this bid cycle,” she wrote. “We will explore our options but it is premature to say whether we will solicit in the immediate area again.”
Melissa Bailey Photo
At least five to 10 customers per day at Hall-Benedict still ask about the post office, according to Chris Graham (pictured), a nine-year employee. The USPS already came by three weeks ago and removed the postal service register, he said. Staff got notice this week that the USPS would be by to remove the counters.
Graham said he built the counters with his own hands, and installed the special slatted walls. He said he’s sad and frustrated to see all that work undone.
The drugstore has put a petition asking its customers to urge the postal service to reinstate the license. Supporters are also weighing in on Facebook.
“My patients, my clients, my customers, they want the post office back,” said Warren Solomon, the new managing pharmacist who replaced Jack Appelbaum.
The drugstore buzzed with supportive customers Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Appelbaum sounded both hopeful and defiant.
“I plan to continue running Hall-Benedict for 170 more years, and serving the New Haven community, just as Jack would have wanted.”