The grocery store’s planned closure comes amid a months-long dispute over its lease.
BURLESON, Texas — A beloved family-owned, independent grocery store in North Texas is expected to close after decades in business.
City Market at 200 E. Renfro Street in Burleson is expected to close on Feb. 21, according to an update from the store’s marketing manager shared on the store’s Facebook page.
The store’s owners Kurt and Jill Jaeger, who bought the store in 2004, announced the plans to close the store in a video posted to the business’s Facebook page in early January.
In the video, Kurt said they had been served with an eviction notice from the building’s owner amid a dispute over the lease of the building that goes back months.
“Our entire City Market family is devastated, heartbroken and shocked that it has to come to an end in this manner,” Kurt said in the video. “This not, I repeat, not what Jill and I wanted and this is not our choice.”
“It deeply saddens us that we will not have the ability to pass down the store’s history to the next generation of our family. To our customers, the term ‘family’ is far more appropriate. We are deeply, deeply grateful for y’all’s support over the years,” Kurt added.
The store employed about 40 people, according to its website.
Camille Bransom, who our content partners at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram report is the owner of the building, disputed the Jaegers’ characterization of the events leading up to the expected closure of the store via a spokesperson.
“There’s nothing ‘shocking’ that has transpired and it *IS* their choice not to sign the lease that was presented. We’ve been trying, in good faith, to negotiate a lease renewal for nearly a year. City Market enjoyed the same rate for over 20 years. The rate we last offered City Market is extremely low for Old Town Burleson. City Market has refused to sign a lease renewal at a reasonable amount, so they are choosing to leave. The building is not being sold. There is not another tenant lined up to take the space,” the message shared on Bransom’s Facebook page on Jan. 9 reads.
The store started a 20% off sale of everything left in the store on Feb. 9, according to City Market’s Facebook page.
A Change.org petition to save City Market has garnered more than 2,200 signatures as of the time of this post.
