Grocer Will Stay on Madison Ave.

A rent dispute between Lane Farms Supermarket has been resolved, allowing one of the last locally owned and operated grocery stores in the area to stay in its Madison Avenue home after 35 years in operation. The store"s new landlord, Mount Sinai Hospital, had been looking to increase rent by 110 percent shortly after it acquired the building last fall, according to Zon Kahili, Lane Farm"s owner. Kahili, who inherited the store from his father, said that he received notice of the rent increase around October 2009. He hoped to negotiate an increase closer to 50 or 60 percent, and acknowledged that rent hadn"t been raised in some time. Christie Corbett, a spokesperson for Mount Sinai, confirmed that the store and hospital had reached an agreement for a new long-term lease, but declined to disclose the amount of the increase. The local advocacy organization Carnegie Hill Neighbors, Community Board 8 and Council Member Dan Garodnick all pushed to keep the grocery store at 1391 Madison Avenue, near East 97th Street. At a March 25 meeting of Board 8"s zoning and development committee, Matt Scanlan, a representative from Garodnick"s office, said that Lane Farms is one of the only stores in the area that accepts food stamps and offers free deliveries for seniors and the disabled. Others pointed out the dearth of amenities in the area. â??There"s really nothing you can buy if you live on Fifth, you"ve got to go to Lexington to shop, said Elizabeth Ashby, a member of Board 8. â??I think [the loss of stores like Lane Farms] will eventually impact residential values. Lo van der Valk, president of Carnegie Hill Neighbors, said he was pleased that Mount Sinai was amenable to negotiating. â??We know the Mount Sinai people over the decades and we understood that we should both work together, van der Valk said. â??We said, â??Look, we got a problem here, let"s work this out," and I think that"s paying good dividends.