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Beneath the Rafael Guastavino-designed vaulted ceiling at Bridgemarket, affluent New Yorkers have browsed for fresh vegetables, exotic cheeses and artisan breads for more than a decade and a half.

Those days will come to end on Saturday at 5 p.m., when the Food Emporium supermarket that has operated under that century-old tiled ceiling since 1999 will close. The space, inside the Manhattan base of the landmarked Queensboro Bridge, eventually will be taken over by someone else who probably will give it a new life as a different type of business.

The ceiling at Food Emporium Photographer: Michael Freeman/Alamy

For now, Bridgemarket’s fate is unknown. The Food Emporium’s lease is one of 10 in Manhattan that were designated for auction under parent Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co.’s bankruptcy, and it’s the only one that hasn’t found a buyer. The store, while beloved by East Side neighbors and architecture enthusiasts, has been unprofitable and the real estate is better suited for another use, local brokers say. Most of the other spaces are likely to reopen as supermarkets under other brands.

“Unfortunately, and I mean that because I liked Food Emporium, they weren’t able to maintain the momentum they had in the past,” said Joanne Podell, vice chairman for retail leasing in Cushman & Wakefield Inc.’s New York office, who isn’t involved with the site. She called Bridgemarket “an incredible space” whose off-the-beaten-path locale favors a destination spot, such as an entertainment venue or health club, that’s not dependent on foot traffic.

Upscale Pioneer

Food Emporium, which helped pioneer the concept of a New York gourmet supermarket in the late 1970s, has been overshadowed in recent years by upscale newcomers such as the Whole Foods, Fairway and Trader Joe’s chains. Shoppers now have so many choices -- from the growing number of farmer’s markets to web-based delivery services to warehouse clubs -- that “traditional supermarkets are feeling the pressure,” said Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of the retail group at brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

The sales of the Manhattan Food Emporium leases brought in more than $61 million for A&P, according to court documents. The minimum bid listed for the Bridgemarket lease was $4.5 million.

Brian Shiver an A&P spokesman, declined to comment on the auctions or the status of Bridgemarket. The city-owned space -- at 59th Street and First Avenue -- is on a master lease through 2047 to a company headed by Las Vegas investor Sheldon Gordon.

Bridgemarket “is very much in demand” from a range of potential tenants, Gordon said, including design and soft-goods stores, as well as a food retailer that he declined to name.

“We are not going to be putting in a gym or a health club,” he said. “It’s going to be a more appropriate kind of tenant.”

‘The Cathedral’

The Queensboro Bridge -- including the area below it, known as “the Cathedral” for its dramatic archways -- was designated a city landmark in 1974. The Landmarks Preservation Commission would regulate any work done on the site, according to Damaris Olivo, a spokeswoman.

The market under Queensboro Bridge Photographer: Kenneth Hughes/Bloomberg

The arcade inside the Manhattan base, completed in 1909, shares the same vaulted-tile construction that was a signature of Guastavino, whose work can be seen throughout New York, from to Grand Central Terminal to Ellis Island to the Bronx Zoo. The bridge space was home to a farmer’s market until it was shut down during the Great Depression, according to the website of Guastavino’s, a catering hall next door to the Food Emporium. For the next three decades, it was used as a storage facility by the city Department of Transportation.

Morton Williams Supermarkets, which bought two Food Emporium leases on the East Side, considered and passed on the 35,000-square-foot (3,300-square-meter) Bridgemarket locale.

“We looked at it,” said Morton Sloan, the upscale chain’s president. “The rent is wild. There are severe mechanical problems of operating there. There are many rumors about what it might be, but it doesn’t make sense as a food market, not in our eyes.”

Gordon declined to disclose the store’s rent. He said the lease that’s being sold was written 18 years ago and that what he’s collecting now is about 60 percent below the market rate.

‘Marginal’ Business

Another buyer was Red Apple Group, which agreed to pay $1 million for the Food Emporium at East 82nd Street and Third Avenue and has reopened it under the Gristedes brand. Even so, John Catsimatidis, Red Apple’s founder, said he’s not bullish on the supermarket business in New York. Aside from competition from the likes of Whole Foods, he’s seen customers get stolen by drugstores that have expanded their grocery offerings.

“The supermarket business has been marginal,” said Catsimatidis, who ran for New York mayor in 2013. “I have been following my heart instead of following my pocketbook.”

— With assistance by Dawn McCarty