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August 16, 2021

Highland Park Market to sell Suffield store

Jessica Lerner | Journal Inquirer Grocery clerk Garrett Pandolfi restocks items at Highland Park Market in Manchester.
By Skyler Frazer, Journal Inquirer

After more than 20 years as part of the Highland Park Market family chain, Suffield's local grocer is being sold later this month to someone who plans to maintain the current atmosphere of the store.

Tim Devanney Jr., co-president of Highland Park Market, said Friday that his family is planning to sell the 68 Bridge St. store this month to local Suffield businessman Ming Chou. Devanney said that Chou plans to take over the store on Aug. 23 and continue to operate it under a new name, Suffield Village Market.

“He’s going to try to run it the way we did for 20 years,” Devanney said Friday.

A closing on the store is set for Aug. 24 as inventory and final sale details are ironed out, Devanney said.

He added that the three-generation, family-run company wanted to reinvest and make improvements at their Glastonbury and Manchester locations, so selling the Suffield spot made sense. Suffield was the lowest performing store in the franchise, so that made it an easier decision to close that branch, he said.

Devanney said there were multiple parties interested in purchasing the store, but Chou was ultimately picked because of his commitment to keeping the facility operating in a similar capacity as it currently does.

“We chose Ming because we believe he’ll maintain the level of service and quality people have come to expect,” Devanney said.

According to Suffield land records, Suffield Village LLC has owned the 6.23-acre property at 68 Bridge St. since 1998.

In addition to the Suffield location, Highland Park Market has grocery stores in Farmington, Glastonbury, and Manchester, where the original store first opened. The Highland Park Market in Coventry is unrelated to the franchise.

Highland Park Market’s Suffield location, its fourth at the time, opened in 2000.

When it opened it became the first supermarket in Suffield since the A&P store closed in 1995.

The Devanney family has run Highland Park Market for several generations, turning from a small grocer on the corner of Highland and Wyllys streets to a franchise with several locations.

Highland Park Market first opened in Manchester at the base of Case Mountain in 1886 when William White opened its doors, according to information from the company website. In 1958, family patriarch Jack Devanney bought the then-small market, and his son Tim Devanney Sr. proceeded to take over as the company’s president in 1985, and has since retired.

Since then, five of Tim Sr.’s six children — Molly, Christine, John, Tim Jr. and Cathleen — have had roles with leading the business’s day-to-day operations.
 

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