Business closing, building sales could mean significant changes for Noank community

NOANK — The small village of Noank finds itself face-to-face with some potentially major changes.

John Sutherland, chairman of the board of directors of the Noank Community Market, a cooperative venture, announced on Tuesday that the neighborhood grocery store would close effective Aug. 16. The announcement was made via email to the co-op’s members.

Earlier, Mary and Michael Edgerton, owners of the nearby Universal Package Store, have put their building up for sale. The couple has owned the building since 2011. The building is also home to the Pearl Street Bakery.

Add to this the fact that 46 Main St., the Pratt-Wright Gallery and Corner Closet building has been for sale, and suddenly three of the most noteworthy pieces of real estate in the village have an uncertain future.

“It feels as if Noank is closing,” said Sloan Rankin while visiting the bakery.

“I’ve been here since the early 1960s and it seems as if there are more part-time residents than before,” Rankin said. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to have people come here and visit, but we need more of a balance.

“It hasn’t been because of a lack of support. Everyone in town loves the market and there were a lot of residents that invested in it to get it running again,” she said.

Laurie Belisle, a West Mystic resident for the last 12 years, runs the Pearl Street Bakery that reopened last October after it had been closed for about two months.

“It’s really unfortunate that the market is closing,” Belisle said Wednesday. “Not only is it a loss for the people who shop there, but a store like that is an anchor to the community, where multiple small businesses can help each other.”

With the package store building up for sale, the future of the bakery is unclear.

The package store building also includes a three-bedroom apartment and the two stores, although the package store inventory and bakery equipment will be sold separately.

“We have other opportunities,” Mary Edgerton said. “We’re having our best year here and we love Noank. It is bittersweet.”

At 46 Main St., the property has been on the market for three years. The 1840 building has four apartments and three retail shops, and the current asking price is $549,000.

Regarding the community market, the co-op at 17 Pearl St., has not been able to remain solvent.

“With great sadness, the board of directors has concluded that it has no choice but to close the market. In spite of the steadfast support of our members and numerous others throughout the community, we have not been able to generate enough business to keep the market going,” Sutherland said in a statement to the press.

“It was a brave thing to establish a community market and a challenge to sustain it over these past years. None of this would have happened without your support,” he said in a statement to the coop’s members.

On Wednesday, Sutherland said several factors contributed to the decision.

“Running the market in the winter was always challenging. Last winter was particularly difficult. We hoped we could rebound this summer, but it hasn’t been enough,” he said. “It is also difficult for a small grocery store to compete with the bigger stores. Sometimes we would see products on the shelves of other stores selling for less than what we could get it for wholesale.”

The community market replaced the Universal Food Store that stood on Pearl Street for 64 years before closing in September 2011 after Tropical Storm Irene. The storm caused a power outage causing a crippling loss of inventory, leaving the store to close only weeks later.

It reopened as a co-op in May 2012. Since that time, the market has struggled.

There are no current plans to sell the building.