Mayor Zohran Mamdani, moving forward with a key campaign promise despite the concerns of some business leaders, plans to announce on Monday that New York City\u2019s first city-owned grocery store will open in Hunts Point in the Bronx next year.<\/p>\n
The mayor wants to create a 20,000-square-foot store at the Peninsula, an affordable housing development<\/a> in a neighborhood in the South Bronx with a high poverty rate.<\/p>\n Mr. Mamdani has pledged to create five city-owned stores<\/a>, one in each borough, with the aim of making groceries more affordable for some shoppers. He previously announced a store at La Marqueta in East Harlem in Manhattan<\/a> that he wants to open by 2029.<\/p>\n \u201cMaking sure every New Yorker can buy fresh, affordable groceries in their own neighborhood is a key part of our affordability agenda,\u201d Mr. Mamdani said in a statement. \u201cWe are proud to begin this work in the South Bronx and remain committed to opening a store in every borough before the end of our first term.\u201d<\/p>\n His plan has raised concerns from some small business owners<\/a> and economists<\/a>, who worry that city-owned stores could hurt smaller supermarkets and question whether his approach is the best way to reduce grocery prices. Jerry Nunez, a manager at City Fresh Market near the East Harlem site, asked the mayor at a forum last month<\/a> why he had chosen a neighborhood that already had several stores.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were right around the corner,\u201d Mr. Nunez said. \u201cWhy so close?\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Mamdani told him that East Harlem was an area where \u201cmany are being priced out of the basic essentials.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy vision is not that there isn\u2019t room for multiple grocery stores,\u201d Mr. Mamdani said. \u201cMy vision is that there is a grocery store within New Yorkers\u2019 reach where they know that they can afford certain things.\u201d<\/p>\n His administration is still examining locations for grocery stores in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island and encouraged property owners to recommend sites to the city online<\/a>. The site in the Bronx is in a district represented by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive ally who supports the mayor\u2019s grocery store plan.<\/p>\n The City Council would have to approve funding for the stores, including the mayor\u2019s request to spend $70 million in capital dollars<\/a> to build them. Julie Menin, the Council speaker, has expressed concerns about how the plan would affect bodegas.<\/p>\n The Peninsula is a project by the city\u2019s Economic Development Corporation<\/a> to redevelop the former Spofford Juvenile Detention Facility, a troubled center<\/a> that permanently closed in 2011. The campus is expected to include 740 units of affordable housing, space for light manufacturing and community events, and commercial space that will house the grocery store.<\/p>\n A digital rendering of the Peninsula development in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx, where Mayor Mamdani is planning to open a grocery store.Credit…New York City Economic Development Corporation<\/p>\n A two-bedroom apartment at the development costs about $700 to $2,298 per month<\/a>, depending on a family\u2019s income.<\/p>\n The mayor\u2019s office said that it had chosen sites for the stores based on \u201cgrocery store density, income inadequacy and population density\u201d and that there was only one full-service supermarket, Compare Foods Supermarket, within one-fourth of a mile of the Hunts Point location.<\/p>\n The neighborhood, along the East River, is home to one of the largest food distribution facilities in the world<\/a>. It became known for urban disinvestment in the 1970s<\/a> and the fires that raged in the South Bronx<\/a>. Despite city investments in the decades since, the poverty rate in Hunts Point was 36 percent in 2023 compared with 18 percent citywide, according to the Furman Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n Maria Torres, the president of the Point Community Development Corporation, a group that works on economic revitalization in the neighborhood, said that neighbors \u201cconsistently requested a healthy foods supermarket\u201d as part of the planning for the Peninsula.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are incredibly excited and hopeful that this pilot project will deliver that to this community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The opposition has been mobilizing to try to stop the stores. Frank Garcia, the chairman of the Multicultural Business Coalition, a nonprofit that opposes city-owned stores, said that he was trying to raise $1 million<\/a> to highlight the concerns of store owners.<\/p>\n The group is planning to hold a rally at City Hall on May 29, when the City Council is expected to hold a hearing about the city\u2019s Economic Development Corporation, which is overseeing the city-owned stores. Mr. Garcia said he was prepared to file a lawsuit to stop the stores.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a waste of our tax dollars,\u201d he said. \u201cThe mayor should sit down with us, and we can give him a real plan to bring down prices.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Garcia said he had spoken to Ms. Menin\u2019s office about his concerns. Ms. Menin said in a statement that the City Council was \u201cworking to identify responsible solutions to lower costs and address food insecurity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Council looks forward to receiving further details on the administration\u2019s proposal at the upcoming hearing,\u201d her spokesman said.<\/p>\n