SYRACUSE — Tops Friendly Markets opened its grocery store in the Valley Plaza in Syracuse today.
The 36,400-square-foot store at 4141 S. Salina St. fills the site of a supermarket closed by P&C Food Markets in 2009. It employs 120 people.
“We recognized Valley Plaza as a community in great need of a grocer and our mission is to serve those areas where the need is the greatest,” Tops President and CEO Frank Curci said in a news release. “We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of community support since announcing our plans to operate. We are confident that the store will be well-received and provide the Valley Plaza community with an exceptional one-stop shopping experience.”
Tops revealed plans to open the Valley Plaza store in July. It started $1.6 million in work on the site that included exterior renovations and parking-lot improvements that month.
The grocery chain’s parent company, Williamsville–based Tops Markets, LLC, operates 148 company-owned supermarkets and five franchise locations. Those stores are in upstate New York, northern Pennsylvania, and western Vermont under the names Tops, Grand Union, and Bryant’s.
Tops acquired P&C Food Markets’ parent company, Syracuse–based Penn Traffic Co., in bankruptcy court in 2010.
Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com