Shoppers who have been wondering about empty shelves at an iconic local market might get some answers soon.
Records indicate an initial case management conference in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court is set for March 18 for a case involving the building that houses Clifton Market.
Further legal proceedings in that case could shed new light on the future of the well-known community grocery store.
What we know
The foreclosure proceeding is one of several civil cases the owners of the market face in Cincinnati and beyond.
Gurmukh Singh has owned the building at 319 Ludlow Avenue since 2019, when he purchased the property under Lyjaad LLC from the Clifton Market Co-op.
Clifton Market opened in 2017 to replace Keller's IGA, which closed in 2011 after 70 years in business. But the cooperative market soon ran into its own financial difficulties and faced foreclosure. Singh was already managing the market when he bought it, according to media reports at the time.
Now the store's fate is again in question. Recent visits found little in the way of produce, bread or other staple items. Some aisles are almost entirely empty.
Singh has attributed the lack of product to the closure of some of the market's distributors. But there are also signs of deeper financial distress.
Wesbanco Bank, Inc. filed foreclosure proceedings on the building and others owned by Singh and his wife, Genet Singh. That foreclosure was filed in 2024 in Warren County, where the Singhs reside.
The action involved multiple loans on several Clifton properties. A Warren County judge issued a certificate of judgement against the Singhs, but WesBanco filed to have that certificate released in April 2025, after the two parties apparently came to an agreement.
In a new foreclosure filing in Hamilton County Court entered in November last year, WesBanco alleged the couple were still delinquent on payments on those mortgages and moved for foreclosure sale of the properties.
WesBanco's filings allege the Singhs owe about $1.6 million on a mortgage on the Clifton Market building and hundreds of thousands of dollars on other residential properties in Clifton.
In a response filed in late January seeking dismissal of the foreclosure proceedings, the Singhs said they've made $900,000 in payments to the bank under the previous deal to bring their mortgages current.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Wende C. Cross has not dismissed the case and proceedings have gone forward since that filing.
WVXU reached out to the Singhs via contact information on court documents and for the market. A reporter also reached out to attorneys representing WesBanco and has not gotten a response.
Other financial difficulties
The legal action is one of several cases involving the Singhs and the market.
The largest is a decision by Hamilton County Judge Jennifer Branch in January finding the market owed Lipari Foods more than $119,000 for product the company supplied but the market hadn't paid for in a timely manner.
The Erie Insurance Company also filed a lawsuit in Hamilton County against the Singhs in May last year alleging they owed $12,000 for insurance on the market. The court ruled for the plaintiffs in October and ordered garnishment in December last year in that case.
And in January this year, the Northside Meat Company filed a lawsuit against the market alleging its owner wrote more than $8,000 in bad checks for meat. That case is ongoing.
Hamilton County Sheriffs records indicate Gurmukh Singh was in the Hamilton County Justice Center March 9 for writing a bad check for $1,000 to Martin & Company Wines in January. After Singh failed to pay the company back by a Feb. 28 deadline, a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Hamilton County Clerk of Courts records show he was held briefly and then released on his own recognizance. It is unclear if the wine was for the market or another business Singh owns.
Not the only struggling store
According to Lorain County Clerk of Courts records, another $3 million foreclosure case is unfolding in Oberlin, Ohio, around an IGA the Singhs own there under an LLC called GG and GA Enterprises, LLC. The Singhs purchased the store in 2022.
Media reports say Lorain County Health inspectors found temperatures there were 55 degrees in December. Reporting also says a county inspector heard allegations from employees they were not being paid, something Singh has denied. The store closed "indefinitely" last month.
County auditor records suggest the Singhs also are tens of thousands of dollars behind on property taxes for both the Oberlin and Cincinnati stores.
Other filings in Hamilton County Courts allege another LLC owned by the couple, Ghuman Investments, owes a local law firm about $22,000 for legal representation on an unsuccessful property deal in Clifton.
In response to the firm's lawsuit, Genet Singh claims the couple doesn't have the money for legal representation and that her husband suffered from significant medical issues late last year.
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