Oct. 28, 2016: An entity called Chase Spirits LLC made a $200,000 bid for the Metuchen retail distribution liquor license held by the bankruptcy estate of The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc, which controls A&P stores. The company filed for protection from creditors last year.

The bid has to be approved by federal bankruptcy court in White Plains, New York, where A&P’s case is lodged. It’s not clear when a hearing for approval will be held.

Chase Spirits LLC is based in Hillsborough, New Jersey, according to bankruptcy documents. An individual named Dipen Shah is listed as contact for the company in court documents. Shah did not respond to an email request for comment this week.

A law firm called Pasricha & Patel LLC, based in Edison, is also listed in documents as a contact. Rishi Desai, an attorney with the firm listed in bankruptcy documents, did not respond to a request for comment.

Shah, controlling an entity called Chase Spirits – Ridgewood LLC, applied for a transfer of liquor license in the Village of Ridgewood in 2013 for a business called Super Cellars.

Earlier this month, Borough Council changed rules to eliminate distance requirements between businesses that sell alcohol for consumption. This was done to accommodate the Whole Foods and the Woodmont developments.

Council, however, left intact a distance requirement of 300 feet between businesses that sell alcohol for distribution, rather than consumption. Council left that rule in to keep control over the A&P liquor license.

“We aren’t certain where the A&P license is going … and we didn’t want two stores next to each other,” Metuchen Mayor Pete Cammarano said this week.

Will update if more info (or anyone gets back to me) becomes available.