WILLIAMSVILLE — Tops Markets, LLC expects to complete its restructuring and emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection “shortly.”

That’s according to a Nov. 8 company news release in which it announced that the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York had confirmed the company’s plan of reorganization. 

Tops filed its plan for reorganization on Aug. 31. A day earlier, Tops had announced plans to close one store each in Syracuse, Geddes, and Fulton, among 10 “underperforming” stores that Tops is closing, the company said.

All the affected stores closed by the end of October, Kathy Sautter, public and media-relations manager for Tops Markets, LLC, said in an email reply to a CNYBJ inquiry.

The Syracuse store is located at 4141 S. Salina St. in the Valley, the Geddes store is at 2120 W. Genesee St. in the Westvale Plaza, and the Fulton store is at 909 West 1st Street S. 

Other Tops stores on the closure list include two locations in Rochester and single locations in Fairport, Lyons, Geneva, Elmira, and Saranac Lake. 

“We are pleased to receive the court’s approval of our plan and are poised to emerge from this process an even stronger and more competitive company,” Frank Curci, CEO of Tops Markets, contended. “Through this process, we have accomplished several key objectives, including significantly reducing our debt, creating a viable cost structure and efficiently optimizing our store portfolio. Importantly, we provided an opportunity for employment to every associate who was interested and impacted by store closings at other nearby stores.”

New York City–based Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP is serving as legal counsel to Tops, while Evercore (NYSE: EVR), also headquartered in New York City, is serving as investment banker. Washington, D.C.–based FTI Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: FCN) is the firm’s restructuring advisor.

Tops Markets is headquartered in the Buffalo suburb of Williamsville. It operates 159 supermarkets with five additional by franchisees under the Tops Markets banner. Tops employs more than 14,000 people in a footprint that includes upstate New York, Northern Pennsylvania, and Vermont.       

SYRACUSE — Spaulding Support Services has formally become part of AccessCNY, following the merger of the two nonprofit disability providers, which closed on Nov. 1 

The two organizations had already essentially been operating as one entity since the spring through a memo of understanding between the two, Matt Seubert, associate executive director of development at AccessCNY, tells CNYBJ in an email. The two nonprofits started sharing staff across programs and consolidated administrative functions such as human resources and finance operations. They also relocated staff who provided the same service or function, he adds.

The merger became effective at the beginning of November when the organizations finalized all the “necessary approvals from our funding agencies,” Seubert says. They celebrated the day with pizza and cake served by the merged organization’s executive team across its three main administrative buildings.

The merged agency operates as AccessCNY, which itself the result of the merger of Enable and Transitional Living Services in 2015. Following this latest merger, Paul Joslyn continues to serve as executive director of AccessCNY. And, Kim Shedd, executive director of Spaulding Support Services, has taken on a leadership role with AccessCNY — now serving as the associate director of non-residential programs for individuals with a developmental disability or acquired brain injury, according to Seubert.

About 100 Spaulding staff are now employed by AccessCNY, which now has about 1,800 employees total. There were no job losses in the merger, says Seubert.

When asked about facility changes, he explains that both AccessCNY and Spaulding provide community-based support to individuals with disabilities. As a result, much of the workforce does not operate from an office. Before their collaboration, Spaulding staff who worked from an office were based at a facility on Basile Rowe in the village of East Syracuse. This past spring, staff providing similar functions became co-located. The Basile Rowe building now houses the agency’s Self-Direction department, Seubert says. 

The agency’s other administrative buildings include: 6666 Manlius Center Road in East Syracuse, 420 East Genesee St. in Syracuse, and 1603 Court St. on the city’s Northside.

The Central New York Community Foundation provided $25,000 to assist with the merger, Seubert says. The foundation’s Strategic Partnership fund “works to create partnerships between nonprofits that enable them to enhance programs and achieve more efficient and effective operations,” he adds. AccessCNY used the funding to contract with the New York Council on Nonprofits, Inc. (NYCON), which helped facilitate the merger.

NYCON, on its website, says it works together with its nonprofit members, other nonprofits, communities, funders, and stakeholders to “build the capacity of nonprofits and communities to enhance the quality of life through responsive, cost-effective service and by forming a long-term, multi-layered service relationship” with its member nonprofits.

AccessCNY says it serves more than 3,000 people with developmental disabilities, physical disabilities, mental health diagnoses and/or acquired brain injuries each year by offering services that “empower individuals to create and achieve their own success.”