M. Slavin & Sons — a century-old fishmonger that was long one of New York’s most dominant and sharp-elbowed — is finally going belly-up.
The family-run dynasty — whose business got hit hard in 2005 when a federal crackdown on Mafia-controlled unions at the Fulton Fish Market forced it and others to leave for a pricey new facility in the Bronx — will be filleted and sold for parts in a foreclosure process that’s slated to get wrapped up next week, The Post has learned.
The move to a state-of-the-art facility at Hunts Point more than a decade ago crimped customer access and hiked costs for M. Slavin and its fellow fishmongers.
M. Slavin had covered 15% of the rent in the building — until it fell behind on its payments in recent months, sources told The Post.
But insiders say M. Slavin was also guilty of gutting itself — despite longtime patriarch Herb Slavin’s claim to have supplied the White House with fish during the George W. Bush administration.
“No one is surprised by their situation because the handwriting has been on the wall for a while,” said one longtime rival, who did not want to be identified.
“I don’t think they’ll make it through the summer,” he added.
After it filed for bankruptcy in early 2011, blaming its lack of profits on the financial crisis, M. Slavin a few months later forked out nearly $1 million to settle a discrimination lawsuit, in which supervisors were accused of using racial slurs and groping employees’ buttocks.
But longtime competitors in the close-knit fish industry mainly blame Slavin’s downfall on a stubborn refusal by Herb and his octogenarian brother, Barry, to surrender the reins.
“Herbie and Barry could never pass it on to the next generation,” according to a rival fishmonger.
The Slavins laid off their 48 employees on June 1, according to a government filing. Tenants in the building say a skeleton crew continues to work the market under Herb’s son Mitchell, who did not return repeated calls and emails seeking comment.
Over the past few months, M. Slavin has been shopped by distressed-debt specialist Keen Summit, according to documents on Keen’s website. M. Slavin’s sales tumbled 27% to $35 million last year, according to Keen, which was trying to sell the company “in whole or in parts.”
Herb Slavin, who is 87 and uses a walker, has not been spotted in the facility “in a while,” said a vendor. He isn’t missed by his competitors at Hunts Point, whom he sued unsuccessfully in 2010 for the right to enclose his stall, saddling them with hundreds of thousands in legal fees.
In 1991, Herb Slavin served six months in prison for extortion, later described by his lawyer, according to reports, as “a debt-collection matter.”
At least three generations of Slavins have run the company continuously since the early 1900s. In 1926, M. Slavin made the papers when gangster Joseph “Sacks” Lanza murdered labor organizer William Mack in a speakeasy located above its fish stall at 105 South St.
Amid the tumult, M. Slavin grew from a single storefront in Brooklyn — opened by Morris and Minnie Slavin — to a major supplier at the Fulton Fish Market in lower Manhattan to restaurants, hotels and markets.
“They grew by underselling everyone,” said another longtime competitor. “They were always the biggest guys on the block, and they always sold cheap.”
The company’s low prices, however, raised doubts among some customers about the quality of the seafood, restaurateurs and others told The Post.
At the time of its 2011 bankruptcy filing, the company employed more than 105 staffers, down from 250 in 2007. Its trucks with the slogan “Eat more fish. Live longer,” were ubiquitous in the city.
It had operations in Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Brooklyn and Maryland.
While the family retained a 50% stake in the company after the bankruptcy filing, its assets were pledged as collateral to lender Northmill Capital, which initiated a foreclosure process on June 14.
The only bidder for the company is a startup called OceanBox, which offers a Blue Apron-style seafood subscription service.