Superfresh's Out. Who's In?

The Dulaney Plaza Superfresh is about to go stale.

A spokeswoman for The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, the chain's parent company, confirmed that the store across from Towson Town Center is one of 25  stores closing this fall as a result of high rents, low sales, competition and other factors.

The Dulaney Valley Road location was smaller and offered fewer services than most of the company's stores. It was also less than a mile from another, larger Superfresh in the Towson Place shopping center on Goucher Boulevard. Another large 24-hour Superfresh is located on Aylesbury Road in Timonium.

Towson Park resident Victor Dolinski, 60, was disappointed to hear of the closing.

"I don't like it. I'm a regular customer and I enjoy coming here," he said. "It's close to my house."

The Towson store was also faced with new competition, as Safeway opened a new location at Radcliffe Center on York Road in late August, less than a quarter mile from Dulaney Plaza.

Devlin Moore, 28, works across the street at the Apple Store in Towson Town Center and occasionally stops by the store on the way home to the city's Mount Washington neighborhood.

"It's either this or Whole Foods," he said.

The prominent space left open by the Super Fresh likely won't stay open for long. 

Lawrence Taubman, Dulaney Plaza's managing partner, has said in interviews with other media that he is in serious negotiations with an "upscale grocer" to take over the space. Chains like Wegmans, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market would fit that bill. Wegmans, which operates a very successful store in Hunt Valley, generally requires a much larger lot. Trader Joe's, the current Superfresh's nearest competitor, has no plans to move from its Towson Circle location.

Whole Foods, the popular natural grocer, has nine stores in Maryland, including two in Baltimore city, but none in Baltimore County.

Ivy Goldberg, a Whole Foods spokeswoman, said in an e-mail in late August that the company doesn't have "any firm plans" to open in the area just yet.

Nancy Hafford, president of the Towson Chamber of Commerce, said the other Towson Superfresh was less than a mile away and expressed hope that the lot would soon attract a newer tenant.

"Dulaney Plaza has been so successful that I am sure they won't have any problems finding a tenant whatsoever," she said.