The former Rite Aid building that anchors a chunk of Smith Street in Carroll Gardens has a new owner, and it's not another pharmacy chain. Happier Grocery President LLC, an entity tied to Manhattan developer Dawson Stellberger, paid $21.5 million for 320 Smith Street and 336 Union Street in early August 2026, scooping up the entire west side of Smith Street between President and Union streets in the process.
The sale deed was filed September 1, 2026, according to Brooklyn Paper, which first identified Stellberger as the buyer behind the purchase. The properties span seven row-house lots and were sold by the previous owners, according to PincusCo, which reported that the deal was financed with a $22 million loan from S3 Capital. The existing two-story building includes a store and five market-rate rental apartments, per Brooklyn Paper's reporting, and the Rite Aid structure itself dates back only to 2008, though the site's prior use as a lot for parking and secondhand-car sales stretches back to at least the 1940s.
A Deep-Pocketed Buyer With Manhattan Roots
Stellberger signed for Happier Grocery President LLC in care of 99c LLC, the entity behind his real estate ventures. According to reporting by The Real Deal, 99c was founded by Quebec businessman Carlo Bellini alongside his father, biotech billionaire Francesco Bellini, and the group previously bought the 31-story former AIG headquarters at 175 Water Street in Lower Manhattan for $252 million. That property was transformed into WSA, a creative office tower that courts fashion, art, and media tenants with below-market rents and space for high-profile cultural events, the New York Review of Architecture reported. New York City awarded $41.3 million in tax breaks under the M-CORE program to help fund those renovations, per reporting from espresso edits.
Happier Grocery itself opened in 2023 at 365 Canal Street in SoHo as a health-focused gourmet market, offering organic produce, a smoothie bar, hot food counters, and specialty goods pitched as New York's answer to Los Angeles luxury grocer Erewhon, according to NABI Magazine. Brooklyn Paper's reporting also ties Stellberger, along with fashion designer Wells Stellberger and 99c, to other Brooklyn ventures including 99 Scott, 53 Scott Avenue, a forthcoming hotel with a wellness center, an under-construction geothermal hotel, and an events and creative hub centered around Scott Avenue in Bushwick, including nightclubs.
Zoning Leaves Room for a Tower
Whether the block becomes a Brooklyn outpost of Happier Grocery, a redevelopment project, or something else entirely remains an open question. Stellberger did not respond to questions about his plans, according to Brooklyn Paper, and Happier Grocery President LLC has not filed any permits for the site. Brooklyn Paper's report floated possibilities ranging from an apartment tower to upmarket sandwiches and influencer events, reflecting Stellberger's track record of pairing commercial buildings with events spaces, creative studios, and hospitality venues.
The zoning gives the new owner considerable flexibility. Marketing materials from commercial brokerage TerraCRG show 320 Smith Street is zoned R6B with a C2-4 commercial overlay, permitting up to 28,500 buildable square feet as-of-right or as much as 34,200 square feet using Universal Affordability Preference inclusionary housing bonuses. The existing building totals just 16,091 square feet, leaving substantial unused development rights on a site that sits near the Carroll Street F train stop and Carroll Park.
Part of a Corridor-Wide Shakeup
The sale fits into a broader transformation of the Smith Street retail corridor following Rite Aid's Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Rite Aid's 2025 bankruptcy was followed by broad store closures nationwide, according to court filings relayed by Big Frog 104. According to a 2024 study cited by the National Institutes of Health, 29.4 percent of the 88,930 retail pharmacies operating during 2010–20 had closed by 2021. The New York Times reported that 222 big-box pharmacies had closed in New York City and that 138 stores were still vacant in July, with typical stores ranging from 8,000 to 15,000 square feet. Just blocks north, Amazon-owned Whole Foods Market signed a 35,000-square-foot lease in June 2026 to take over another former Rite Aid at 182 Smith Street on the Cobble Hill/Boerum Hill border, as TheStreet reported — a deal Hoodline covered in June.
The economics behind that shift are stark, though the cited sources do not establish specific retail or residential rent figures. TerraCRG's own team, led by brokers Dan Marks and Daniel Lebor, exclusively represented the seller in marketing and closing the $21.5 million deal, according to PincusCo. For now, neighbors near the Carroll Street F stop are left waiting to see whether their old pharmacy corner becomes another Happier Grocery, a residential tower, or something Stellberger hasn't tipped his hand on yet.
