Brinkmann's Hardware to take over King Kullen supermarket space

A Long Island-based hardware chain will take over a supermarket space in Glen Cove that Amazon allegedly had been eyeing for an Amazon Fresh.

Brinkmann’s Hardware plans to open its fifth store in the first quarter of 2023 in a space that a King Kullen supermarket will vacate this month, said Hank Brinkmann, a co-owner.

“We’ve signed a lease to go into that King Kullen space. We’re very excited to bring our family-owned concept of a large-format local hardware store to the Glen Cove area,” said Brinkmann, who-owns the business with his siblings, Mary Neimeth and Ben Brinkmann.

The new store will employ about 40 to 50 part- and full-time workers, Hank Brinkmann said.

Founded in 1976 by the Brinkmann siblings’ parents, Tony and Pat Brinkmann, the hardware business is headquartered in Sayville and is part of the True Value buying group.

Brinkmann Hardware Corp. owns four Brinkmann's Hardware stores — in Blue Point, Holbrook, Miller Place and Sayville — and a stand-alone VanKemenade Paint store in Jamesport that sells Benjamin Moore paint.

In June, Hauppauge-based King Kullen Grocery Co. Inc. announced that it would be closing two of its grocery stores — a 20-year-old supermarket in Glen Cove on July 28 and a 48-year-old store in Franklin Square on July 14.

The King Kullen in Glen Cove occupies 38,000 square feet at 77 Forest Ave.

Amazon was considering opening an Amazon Fresh supermarket there, Norman Bobrow, of Bobrow Bros LLC, the Queens-based owner of the Glen Cove shopping center, told Newsday in June.

But those negotiations fell through, Bobrow said Friday.

“The layout didn’t work out for” Amazon, he said.

Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. declined to comment.

Delays and legal battles

Brinkmann's Hardware also wants to relocate its Jamesport store to Mattituck, where it would construct a 12,000-square-foot hardware store and an 8,000-square-foot paint store in a currently wooded area at 12500 Main Rd., but that plan has been delayed over a legal fight with the Town of Southold. 

Brinkmann Hardware Corp., which submitted building plans to the town in January 2018 for the project, sued the town in Suffolk County Supreme Court in Riverhead over a February 2019 moratorium on issuing new building permits  on Main Road between Bay Avenue and Pike Street.

After a judge in June 2020 ruled against the town’s request to dismiss the suit, the town board voted in September 2020 to take the Brinkmanns' 1.77-acre property in Mattituck via eminent domain to create a "passive" park.

The town has until September 2023 to go to court to ask the judge for the property and have the court determine the value, said Thomas McKevitt, an attorney at Uniondale-based law firm Sahn Ward Braff Koblenz PLLC, who represents the Brinkmanns.

The Arlington, Virginia-based Institute of Justice, a nonprofit law firm, filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the family in May 2021 in U.S. Eastern District Court in Central Islip. The case is pending.

The Brinkmanns allege that the town is unfairly and illegally preventing the construction of their buildings, but some critics say the project would bring too much traffic to the area.

Southold Supervisor Scott A. Russell declined to comment Friday because of the pending litigation.

John Burke, acting town attorney, declined to comment on the Brinkmanns’ allegations.

The chain also hopes to open next year a store in Hauppauge originally planned for 2020 but delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and then because of construction and building permit delays, Hank Brinkmann said.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.