Bottles by Sickles was shut down following an eviction action last week. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A wine-and-liquor business taken down by the dramatic collapse of Sickles Market earlier this year is seeking protection from creditors.
TST Beverages, a limited liability company that operated the Bottles by Sickles shop in Red Bank, sought chapter 11 federal bankruptcy coverage from vendors with claims of more than $5.2 million, according to an April 23 court document.
Sickles Market and Bottles by Sickles opened in the Anderson Building, below, in 2020. Both are now closed. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
The move to reorganize debts came weeks after Metrovation Inc., the store’s landlord, obtained a Superior Court order to evict the business from the Anderson Building, at 200 Monmouth Street.
Bottles by Sickles opened along with a grab-and-go Sickles Market food store in the refurbished Anderson Building in August, 2020. But in a move that stunned customers, the 8,500-square-foot market abruptly shut down February 15.
At the time, company principal Bob Sickles attributed the failure to “repercussions from the pandemic.”
Less than four weeks later, the 116-year-old farm-based market in Little Silver suffered the same fate.
The federal bankruptcy court filing was made by TST Beverages, owned by Bob Sickles and family members, and appears to cover only the liquor store holdings and debts, not those of the grocery businesses, as reported elsewhere. Andrew Kelly, the Spring Lake attorney who filed the document, could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
In its filing, TST told the court that no other bankruptcy cases are “pending or being filed by a business partner or an affiliate of the debtor.”
The filing identifies liabilities of $5.26 million and assets of $550,000. Of the assets, $400,000, or 73 percent of the total, is in the form of a retail liquor license – on which the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic and Beverage Control has a lien, the filing states.
Topping those owed money is Northfield Bank, of Woodbridge, which has a secured $4.5 million claim. In 2022, the bank loaned $5 million to AHS Realty LLC, a Sickles family company that owns the 6.5-acre farm and market in Little Silver, with TST and other entities also listed as borrowers, according to mortgages filed with the Monmouth County Clerk.
The Little Silver property is assessed at $2.84 million.
The bankruptcy filing says TST owes Metrovation almost $64,000, though the development firm claims it is owed more than $330,000 in unpaid rent for the two stores as well as office space.
More than a dozen liquor vendors are listed as creditors, as are three employees.
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