Samuel McDaniel, the owner of the Astoria Downtown Market, has sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture after being excluded from the food stamp program.

The Astoria Downtown Market will close in the coming weeks because of financial issues related to owner Samuel McDaniel’s legal battle with the federal government to accept food stamps.

“It’s disappointing that people won’t have the services, and we won’t have the local camaraderie that we’ve all had,” he said.

McDaniel took over the Commercial Street market in July 2017, a decade after he was convicted in Lane County of felony delivery of marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture denied McDaniel’s application to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, known as food stamps, arguing his conviction reflected a lack of business integrity, a criteria for denial.

The denial severely limited McDaniel’s ability to serve the low-income community. He sued the federal agency, arguing the drug conviction happened long before he took over the market and related to no crime of dishonesty.

U.S. District Court Judge John Acosta sided with McDaniel’s argument and ordered the federal government to review McDaniel’s application again. But McDaniel, who is waiting on a settlement with the USDA to recover his legal costs, said he needs to close down and focus on rebuilding his credit.

The closure of his market will limit grocery options downtown. The Astoria Co+op, formerly in the Shark Rock Building on Duane Street, relocated to a larger store at 23rd Street and Marine Drive. McDaniel had hoped to fill the void downtown and expand his grocery operations. Instead, he is selling everything at a discount as he liquidates before closure.