Fairway Market To Be Anchor Food Market At Hudson Yards

NEW YORK, Aug. 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Related Companies, Oxford Properties Group and Fairway Group Holdings Corp. ("Fairway") (NASDAQ: FWM) announced today that Fairway Market, the iconic grocery super store, will be the anchor food market at Hudson Yards.  The 45,875 sq. ft. site will be comparable in size to Fairway's 74th Street and Broadway and 86th Street and 2nd Avenue locations, and will occupy the ground floor retail space in the South Tower.  Fairway will offer the entire Hudson Yards neighborhood a first-class grocery shopping experience that epitomizes Fairway's "Like No Other Market" ® slogan.  The Hudson Yards Fairway will be adjacent to the 10th Avenue Spur, part of New York City's famous High Line, and is scheduled to open in 2015.  It will be across the street from 500 West 30th Street – the new Robert A. M. Stern designed rental property being developed by Related Companies and Abington Properties, which is scheduled for completion in 2014.

"Hudson Yards is the next great New York neighborhood and we're excited to be an integral part of the development of this world-class location, and to be an amenity and food destination for the huge numbers of workers, residents, neighbors and tourists who will visit Hudson Yards," said Charles Santoro, Fairway Market's Executive Chairman.  "We continue to believe our growth prospects are outstanding in and around the tri-state NY, NJ and CT metro area, and are very pleased that Related and Oxford have selected Fairway as their food retailing partner in this historic real estate development."

"Fairway Market has been a New York institution for more than 80 years and is the quintessential New York food experience," said Jay Cross, President of Related Hudson Yards.  "It is natural that Fairway Market was our choice for an anchor location on what will become the new heart of New York."

Similar to all Fairway Markets, the new store will offer an exceptional combination of traditional, organic and specialty foods at the most competitive prices.  Fairway is a fusion of the neighborhood corner butcher, baker, cheese shop, fishmonger, and farmer's market, all under one roof and serving millions of customers annually with daily-delivered produce, a best-of-the-best kosher selection, the freshest seafood, custom-cut USDA prime meat, cheeses from around the world, a classic New York deli counter, a made-from-scratch bakery, an olive bar, coffee bar, cafe and more. 

"We look forward to providing customers a fabulous and unique food shopping experience with fresh, natural, organic and conventional foods at great values," said Herb Ruetsch, Chief Executive Officer of Fairway Market.  "We are also eager to make an impact in the Hudson Yards community as a great neighbor as well.  We are always committed to helping organizations that make a difference."

The anticipated LEED Gold South Tower, designed by acclaimed global architects Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), has 52 stories and stands 895 feet tall.  The South Tower offers Fairway a truly unique location just beneath the High Line at the corner of 30th Street and 10th Avenue and adjacent to the highly anticipated Culture Shed.  Construction on the 1.7 million sq. ft. South Tower began last December and the building is slated for occupancy in 2015.  With this lease agreement, the South Tower is more than 85 percent committed with additional tenants Coach Inc., L'Oreal USA and SAP.

Hudson Yards sits within New York's fastest developing neighborhood, with a growth rate five times greater than the rest of Manhattan and an influx of 6,000 residences and 2,400 hotel rooms in the last five years.  Once completed, 40,000 people will work in, or call Hudson Yards their home.  The 28-acre site, which now includes 1 and 2 Hudson Boulevard, will transform the neighborhood by giving residents, employees and visitors an incomparable offering of amenities including: more than 9 million square feet of state-of-the-art commercial space, 750,000 square feet of destination retail space, 5,000 residences, a new public school, a cultural center, a luxury hotel, a health club, a direct connection to the #7 Subway and 14-acres of new public space with connections to the celebrated High Line and the new Hudson Park and Boulevard – a sweeping 4-acre thoroughfare running north from West 33rd Street to Times Square. 

Hudson Yards is also the most accessible site in the region with unsurpassed connections to commuter rail, the subway system, the West Side Highway, the Lincoln Tunnel and even ferries along the Hudson River. Grand Central Terminal is only 6 minutes away by subway, and Penn Station, the nation's busiest train station, is a short walk away.

For more information, please visit www.hudsonyardsnewyork.com.

About Related Companies
Founded 40 years ago, Related Companies is a fully-integrated, highly diversified industry leader with experience in virtually every aspect of development, acquisitions, management, finance, fund management, marketing and sales. The Company's existing portfolio of real estate assets, valued at over $15 billion, is made up of best-in-class mixed-use, residential, retail, office, trade show and affordable properties in premier high-barrier-to-entry markets. With offices and major developments in Abu Dhabi, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Sao Paolo and South Florida, Related is well-known for having developed the 2.8 million square foot Time Warner Center in New York City and the 72-acre CityPlace in West Palm Beach as well as being a leader in green building.

About Oxford Properties Group
Oxford Properties Group is a global platform for real estate investment, development and management, with over 1,400 employees and over $20 billion of real assets that it manages for itself and on behalf of its co-owners and investment partners. Established in 1960, Oxford has regional offices in Toronto, London and New York, and the company's portfolio includes approximately 50 million square feet of office, retail, industrial, multi-family and hotel properties. Oxford is the real estate arm of the OMERS Worldwide Group of Companies.

About Fairway Market
Fairway Market is a high-growth food retailer offering customers a differentiated one-stop shopping experience "Like No Other Market" ®.  Fairway has established itself as a leading food retailing destination in the Greater New York City metropolitan area, with stores that emphasize an extensive selection of fresh, natural and organic products, prepared foods and hard-to-find specialty and gourmet offerings, along with a full assortment of conventional groceries.  Fairway is headquartered in New York, New York.  For more information, please visit Fairway's website at www.fairwaymarket.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
Except for historical information contained herein, the statements in this release are forward-looking and made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involving known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause Fairway's actual results in current or future periods to differ materially from forecasted results.  Food retail is a large and highly competitive industry, and Fairway's business involves many risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to: our ability to open new stores on a timely basis or at all; our ability to achieve sustained sales and profitable operating margins at new stores; the availability of financing to pursue our new store openings on satisfactory terms or at all; our ability to compete effectively with other retailers; our ability to maintain price competitiveness; the geographic concentration of our stores; our ability to maintain or improve our operating margins; our history of net losses; ordering errors or product supply disruptions in the delivery of perishable products; restrictions on our use of the Fairway name other than on the East Coast and in California and certain parts of Michigan and Ohio; our ability to retain and attract senior management, key employees and qualified store-level employees; rising costs of providing employee benefits, including increased healthcare costs and pension contributions due to unfunded pension liabilities; our ability to satisfy our ongoing capital needs and unanticipated cash requirements; and other risk factors detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), and available at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. You are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements herein and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.  The forward-looking statements made herein speak only as of the date of this press release and the company undertakes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

SOURCE Fairway Market