Cashiers Erica Brasch and Yancy Blanco, right, ring up customers at Cooper's Foods at Sibley Plaza on St. Paul's West Seventh Street, which will be closing in October, photographed August 6, 2017. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)

East African injera bread on sale at Cooper's Foods at Sibley Plaza on St. Paul's West Seventh Street, which will be closing in October, photographed August 6, 2017. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)

Mesfin Fesede of St. Paul buys two packages of injera in a section of the store dedicated to East African groceries at Cooper's Foods on St. Paul's West Seventh Street, which will be closing in October, photographed August 6, 2017. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)

Kosher ground beef on sale at Cooper's Foods at Sibley Plaza on St. Paul's West Seventh Street, which will be closing in October, photographed August 6, 2017. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)

Mesfin Fesede of St. Paul picks up two packages of injera at Cooper's Foods on St. Paul's West Seventh Street, which will be closing in October, photographed August 6, 2017. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)



Cooper's Foods at Sibley Plaza on St. Paul's West Seventh Street will be closing in October, photographed August 6, 2017. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)

Yaakov Shlomo will no longer be able to drive five minutes to get to the largest selection of kosher meats and dairy products in the east metro. Helen Habte will no longer be able to walk five minutes for barley flour, injera bread and other staples of her family’s Eritrean cuisine.

Of the customers walking the aisles of Cooper’s Foods in the Sibley Plaza strip mall one day last week, hardware store worker Daniel Thorson took the news of its closing hardest.

“This is (EXPLETIVE)!” said Thorson, after learning that his favorite grocer will close its Highland Park site by Oct. 24 and that landowner Paster Properties has no obvious leads on a tenant to replace it.

Store owner Gary Cooper bought and revived a failed grocery 20 years ago and transformed it into a mid-sized anchor for both the Sibley Plaza strip mall and the diverse mixed-income community around it.

But Cooper says it’s time to pull out of that location.

Three brands Gefilte fish! Palestinian fava beans, Basmati rice, couscous… Cooper's brought the world to West Seventh. pic.twitter.com/kCOn1Fpiad — FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) August 3, 2017

“Sales here have been shrinking,” said Cooper, who noted that difficult union negotiations, record-keeping related to the city’s new sick-leave mandate, the decline in strip mall tenancies and the store’s pension liabilities were of no help. “I’m a 71-year-old man. … If I can figure out a way to help somebody get in there and keep that store operating, I’ll do it.”

Longtime grocery floor manager Chris Peebles said news is slowly leaking out to customers, and the store’s 40 workers have been informed.

“All I know is Oct. 24 he’s locking the doors,” Peebles said. “The employees have all been told.”

Cooper’s Foods operates a second location closer to downtown St. Paul at 633 West Seventh St., which will remain open, and its Chaska store, which has “been in the family for 100 years,” Cooper said.

The departure of Cooper’s from Highland Park will be a double blow for the surrounding community. The area includes low-income African immigrants from the large Sibley Manor apartment development across the street, seniors from nearby senior housing, Russians, Jews, and other Highland Park residents who found the deals at their neighborhood grocer tough to beat.

Cooper’s exit also marks the decline of a 60-year-old business center that had once opened its arms to the locals with popular bars and buffets like Champp’s Sports Bar and the 7th Street Tavern.

Of roughly 20 storefronts at the strip mall in the 2400 block of West Seventh Street, up to 11 locations on Thursday appeared empty or in transition.

Reflective panes mask tough reality: at least 11 empty storefronts at Sibley Plaza, West 7th St. Nine clearly occupied. A few more iffy. pic.twitter.com/VxTigiCMRM — FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) August 3, 2017

At least another eight locations within the strip mall remain occupied by small tenants, including Yarmo Liquors, a Subway sandwich shop, nail salon, East African cafe 5 Star, Family Dollar store, tobacco shop, United Family Medicine clinic and Tuesday Morning discount home goods.

Paster Properties had announced in 2014 that the grocery store would leave and be replaced by a higher-end natural foods store.

But Cooper said he didn’t lay as much blame on principal Howard Paster for his store’s demise as some of his customers did.

“I don’t think that’s the thing that put me over the edge,” Cooper said. “I’ve said to Howard that since the center’s gotten empty it’s hurt our business, but he’s been pretty responsive about reducing our rent.”

John Kohler, a Vice President with Paster Properties, said his company has not been renewing tenant leases as they expire, in advance of a long-awaited redevelopment of Sibley Plaza, which is still a priority. The closest grocer is Lunds on Ford Parkway.

“We certainly want another grocer — I think the area wants another grocer,” Kohler said. “Once you get an anchor tenant in there, the rest of the leases will follow.”

Cooper said he felt “clobbered by all sides” — local government, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189, and even his beloved but declining customer base.

“I always thought I had a good relationship with the unions,” he said. “In negotiating with the union, we haven’t really gotten a contract and we’ve had some extensions.”

The new sick-leave mandate also hurt, he said.

“If you look at (the city of St. Paul’s) sick-leave mandate, frankly there’s some things I found pretty upsetting, like the record-keeping,” Cooper added. “I guess I kind of feel underappreciated. They’re talking about changing the tobacco law so you can’t sell menthol. At my smaller shops, that’s 5 to 10 percent of my business.”

FITNESS CENTER, FRESH THYME FALLS THROUGH

To mixed community reaction, Paster Properties, formerly known as Paster Enterprises, once promised a $50 million makeover of Sibley Plaza, including the replacement of Cooper’s Foods with a Fresh Thyme natural foods market.

The plan included installing dozens of market-rate apartments, a multi-story fitness center and badly needed greenery.

In 2014, Paster partnered with Bader Development on the top-to-bottom redevelopment project and announced a possible grand opening in the spring of 2017, but the two major tenants soon pulled out and not so much as a shovelful of earth was ever turned.

Related Articles As memories of George Floyd fade, activists make sure his legacy does not

Minneapolis and St. Paul to add 70 electric car charging stations with $6.7M grant

Neighborhood girl finds and returns chef Justin Sutherland’s stolen knife roll

Therapy dog-in training stolen in St. Paul found, reunited with owners

St. Stanislaus’ longtime priest the Rev. John Clay leaves legacy of love. He died Sunday at age 94 St. Paul City Council member Chris Tolbert said he had not yet spoken directly with Cooper or Paster, but he was always impressed with how Cooper’s had altered its offerings to meet the wants and needs of the changing demographics around it.

Customers said they may have to drive or take the bus as far as St. Paul’s University Avenue to find traditional East African fare.

“To find another store is hard!” said Hana Tedene, an Ethiopian immigrant who shops at Cooper’s for vitamins and traditional injera flatbread.

Shlomo, who lives in West St. Paul and cooks for as many as 20 campers at a time at Orthodox Jewish summer camps and programs, said he will have to drive as far as St. Louis Park to buy kosher foods.

“It’s very diverse,” Shlomo said of the store.

He noted Cooper’s went beyond a superficial commitment to ethnic foods and arranged large displays during holy times.

“He’s done a lot for the community. Pallets full of food for Jewish holidays — Passover, Hanukkah.”

Mary Frankson said she sometimes rides her bicycle to Cooper’s or sends her 11-year-old son by bike.

“To have a neighborhood store that serves, literally, who is in the neighborhood — you’ve got to have that mix of Russian food, the East African food, the kosher food,” she said, adding that many low-to-moderate income residents live nearby. If another grocer moves in and tries to go high-end, she worries they’ll fail.

“I’m very concerned,” she said. “To be honest, it needs to be affordable.”