Tops Marketplace in Southington seeks a hand to rebuild after fire

March 12--Loyal customers of the burned-down Tops Marketplace in Southington may find out this week if the business can recover.

Co-owner John Salerno is meeting Wednesday with contractors, architects and engineers to learn what it would cost to rebuild the 14,000-square-foot grocery store. He's also talking this week with his insurer about what's covered from the blaze that he figures destroyed more than $1 million in inventory alone.

"We want to come back, we have to see if there's a way to do it," Salerno said Monday.

With hundreds of longtime customers clamoring for word on Tops' future, Salerno and his business partner, Betsy Tooker, launched a GoFundMe page over the weekend. The campaign invites donations to help Tops return, and promises that all money will be returned to Greater Southington _ whether or not the store reopens.

"Once we have rebuilt our business, we will take great pride in donating these funds back to the community in the form of food donations, Betsy's gift baskets for charity auctions, catering nonprofit events through Carmela Marie, sponsorships, food pantry donations and more," according to the page.

The Tops Marketplace Community Rebuild Fund seeks $50,000 in donations through United Bank. As of Monday afternoon, it had reached more than $1,500.

"While our intention is to rebuild and we are working diligently with our insurance company, there is the possibility that we may not be successful," Salerno and Tooker acknowledged on the page. "If we are not successful ... all funds that are contributed to the Tops Marketplace Community Rebuild Fund will be donated to nonprofit organizations that support the community. That is why we have established a separate bank account."

Tops was a community institution for decades, with a reputation for donating to Southington sports leagues, civic groups and charities. It had been a family-run independent market, and was a popular place for local high school students to work part time.

All of that ended on the night of March 3, when a fast-spreading fire chased shoppers and workers into the parking lot before it destroyed the building.

Investigators have concluded it began in the kitchen near a bank of pizza ovens, but haven't identified the exact cause, according to Fire Chief Richard Butler. State and Southington fire marshals along with insurance investigators have agreed it was accidental, he said, and they probably won't be able to determine precisely what started it.

In addition to shelves and shelves of inventory, the business lost everything from freezers to cash registers. Salerno doesn't know what the final cost will be, but said he's still getting bills for food and other products that burned.

"There's so much you can't replace _ all the acknowledgements from community organizations that covered our walls," Salerno said. "We've been here for so long. There was the football helmet from Southington High School, the pottery piece from the Franciscan Life Center ... all of it's gone."

The nearby Arby's along with the Stop & Shop in Southington are encouraging displaced Tops workers to apply for jobs.

"Southington is a community-oriented place. What happened is not about business _ it's a loss to the community, to the owner, to the workers and to the customers," said Mark Gerson, store manager at Stop & Shop. "We're offering their associates jobs in this store or another surrounding Stop & Shop. We've put on extra staff to help new customers find where things are here."

Don Stacom can be reached at dstacom@courant.com.

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