Landlord tires of chain convenience stores leaving, starts his own - American Independent Business Alliance AMIBA

10/2/05

For landlord, food-store chain wasn't just a matter of convenience
When Wawa left his shopping centers, he opened his own stores

BY MICHAEL L. DIAMOND
Business Writer
Asbury Park Press

Charles Bonsangue, a shopping center owner, couldn't have been pleased when long-time tenant Wawa announced in 2001 that it was moving four of its stores from his centers to larger quarters. After all, the convenience stores drew scores of customers to his centers.

Rather than begin a wide search for a replacement, he decided to start his own convenience store, Home Town Market, to fill the void and provide stability that suddenly was missing.

"When tenants were concerned, I told them, "Don't worry about it. There will be a convenience store there as soon as they leave,' " Bonsangue said.

Bonsangue's company, SBE Corp., has used its experience working with Wawa to open Home Town Markets in four of the 14 shopping centers it owns in Monmouth and Ocean counties: Lakewood, Dover Township, Forked River and Neptune City.

His company is deeply rooted in the past, from the corner markets it is opening to its customer-service attitude. And it has grown to 60 employees and $10 million to $12 million in annual revenue, when counting both the shopping centers and convenience stores.

The new stores have helped soften the blow for tenants in the centers that Wawa left. Lawrence Jones, owner of Neptune City Cleaners on Sylvania Avenue, said plenty of customers in the morning would routinely drop off their laundry at his store and grab a cup of coffee next door at Wawa.

When Wawa closed in December 2004, traffic slowed, cutting into business, Jones said. But customers seem to be adjusting to the new convenience store.

"It's beginning to come back," he said. "It's not what it was, but it's better."

Bonsangue, in his 70s, lives in Belmar. His daughter, Barbara Bonsangue, also of Belmar, has worked with him for nearly 20 years, managing the shopping centers. And his grandson, Steve Hough of Neptune, manages the Home Town Markets.

Hough, who previously worked in the human resources department for a Piscataway telecommunications company, changed course when his grandfather called with a job offer in 2001.

"(When) your family needs your help, there's not a second of debate," Hough, 32, said of his decision to leave the high-tech world and join his mother and grandfather.

It isn't hard to figure out where Hough's values come from. Charles Bonsangue grew up in Cliffside Park in Bergen County during the Great Depression, and he quickly was put to work. At 6, he cleaned houses. At 9, he shined shoes at the Palisades Amusement Park in Fort Lee. He keeps his shoe-shine box on a shelf behind his desk.

He eventually became a general contractor, building offices, shopping centers and convenience stores and making what would prove to be valuable contacts at Wawa.

But "all the time I'm thinking, I always wanted to do something for me," Bonsangue said. "I made a nice living, (but the owners) got rich. There was something wrong with that."

Bonsangue moved to Belmar in 1969 and went on his own. He borrowed $175,000 from a bank and built a shopping center on Route 9 in Forked River. And he scouted for other locations, often renting an airplane and flying over prospective sites. Today, the company has shopping centers from Barnegat to Manalapan.

"You get up in the air and see for miles," he said. He recalled flying over the Neptune City property that he eventually would build on in the early 1970s. "I saw all the homes that were around in Neptune City, Wall Township, that didn't have a (shopping center) to go to. I said, "That's got to be my site.' "

For all the discussion about the traditional way of doing business, Home Town Market isn't immune from the changing times. The company, for example, has struggled to find qualified workers to staff its stores. And competition, whether it's a new Dunkin Donuts or Quiznos, seems to open on every corner, catering to consumers who can't wait more than a couple of minutes for service, Barbara Bonsangue said.

To that end, Home Town Market is adding new touches, such as house-brewed coffee, high-end sandwiches and a changing menu that includes pot roast, meat loaf and macaroni and cheese — to go along with lottery tickets and candy bars usually found in convenience stores.

"We've got to set ourselves apart in some way," Hough said.

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