Is Happier Grocery Coming to Carroll Gardens?

Will Happier Grocery replace the former Smith Street Rite Aid? Photo: Amy Lombard/The New York Times/Redux Okay, now there goes the neighborhood. A company linked to Happier Grocery has purchased the former Rite Aid on Smith Street for $21.5 million. As first reported by Crain’s, the grocer’s co-owner, Dawson Stellberger, signed a deed back in January for the two-story building in Carroll Gardens. Does this mean you’ll be able to wait on line for $14 mango smoothies and lamb-and-beef meatballs before ducking into the Carroll Street station? Maybe! As Patch reported, the Erewhon-aspiring store has been advertising for a grocery buyer in New York, suggesting that the company is trying to expand its local sales of Harry’s Berries and koginut squash beyond its original location on Canal Street. But Stellberger, who is also the managing partner of the firm Bushwack Capital, has a background in real estate as well and has quite the portfolio of projects. His varied résumé includes converting a onetime steel factory at 154 Scott Avenue into a venue and events space with his brother and Happier Grocery co-founder, Wells, and he is currently at work putting up a ten-story geothermal hotel, too. The Stellberger brothers are partners in WSA, and their Canal Street storefront has gone well beyond just selling probiotic sodas and status fruit: There’s an event space aboveHappier Grocery called Apartment, which has hosted Ella Emhoff–led knitting workshops, podcast recording sessions, and breathwork classes. “You have to buy food,” Stellberger told the New York Times back in February. “How do you reimagine what that experience looks like and then allow other kinds of activities or programs to come alongside that as well, to make it even more of a rich experience?” Rite Aid left the Smith Street location in 2025, when it declared bankruptcy for a second time, and the commercial space has been empty since. (The building has five apartments above the retail space.) Brownstoner reported last month that the new owners could in theory construct at least a four- or five-story building, potentially even higher if setbacks and affordable housing come into the fold. The Stellberger-linked firm did get approved for a $5 million construction loan, but there’s no sign yet what any of that might go toward. Maybe building out a podcast studio there, too? Is Happier Grocery Coming to Carroll Gardens? Your product is saved! You’ll receive emails when your saved products go on sale. Manage preferences.