VILLAGE REBIRTH FOR BALDUCCI'S
BY LORE CROGHAN
DAILY NEWS Friday, March 25th 2005
A GRAND OLD NAME in gourmet food is planning to make a big splash in New York.
Balducci's - where generations of finicky shoppers went for perfect produce and dreamy desserts - is returning to its old neighborhood, Greenwich Village.
A new owner is building a flagship on Eighth Avenue and W. 14th St., and seeking sites for several additional city stores.
It's all part of a campaign to open more than 100 specialty-food markets along the East Coast, and take the company public.
The expansion is headed by chief exec Mark Ordan - a Brooklyn boy who played stoop ball in Flatbush and grew up to be a Goldman Sachs investment banker and launch natural-foods chain Fresh Fields.
He's been in charge of Balducci's since a group led by Bear Stearns Merchant Bank bought it in November 2003.
New York will be tough.
Ordan will be facing off against a crowd of upscale specialty-food sellers, from Zabar's to online service Fresh Direct. But he said he's ready.
"It's like in the restaurant business, which is competitive," Ordan told the Daily News. "But restaurants that focus on the finest, best food endure year after year. That's us."
His best competitive weapon may be the new flagship IBEX Construction is starting to build for him inside an 1890s-vintage building.
The former banking hall has a 50-foot ceiling, a dome and stained-glass windows, and is landmarked inside and out.
In addition to a food market, there will be a restaurant on the mezzanine and a kitchen in the basement.
It will employ more than 100 people.
Ordan's aiming for a summer opening.
Meanwhile, he has hired Newmark Retail brokers Jeffrey Roseman and Gary Alterman to find additional store sites of 12,000 to 15,000 square feet.
Initial targets include the upper East Side, upper West Side and SoHo. Upscale nabes in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx will come later.
In time, he intends to build 30 to 50 stores in the city and the surrounding metro area.
For decades, Balducci's was a single store on Sixth Avenue and Ninth St., that belonged to the Balducci family.
They sold it in 1999 - to investors, who later closed it.
By the time the investors sold out to Bear Stearns, they had built a shop on a side street near Lincoln Center and combined Balducci's with two small specialty-food chains.
Soon after Ordan took charge, he slashed prices throughout the stores - putting them on par with those at other specialty shops.
He cut the prices of basic items such as milk and orange juice even more, to match what regular supermarkets charge.
"We want people to shop us every day," he said.