{"id":201267,"date":"2026-04-17T22:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/201267\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T22:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:14:09","slug":"nyc-grocers-lobby-council-speaker-julie-menin-to-fight-mayor-mamdanis-controversial-grocery-store-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/201267\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC grocers lobby Council Speaker Julie Menin to fight Mayor Mamdani’s controversial grocery-store plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City grocers are lobbying Council Speaker Julie Menin to oppose Mayor Mamdani\u2019s plan to open city-run grocery stores \u2014 and are optimistic that she\u2019ll take their side<\/a> after she issued a cool response to the controversial proposal earlier this week, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n

The grocers are fast-tracking outreach to the Manhattan Dem and other Council members, who are expected to get a vote on whether to fund Mamdani\u2019s plan that calls for $30 million for one grocery store alone, insiders said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just five days old but we are doing what we can to reach [Council members] to say, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s discuss what\u2019s impacting existing food stores,’\u201d said Mike Durant, chief executive of the Food Industry Alliance of New York, which represents 3,000 grocery stores.<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at a news conference about his plan to open a city-owned grocery store in Harlem. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n

Local grocers were floored by the democratic socialist mayor\u2019s Sunday announcement that the city would open one of five grocery stores at La Marqueta in East Harlem \u2014 and they view the plan as unnecessary, taxpayer-funded competition in a brutal business.<\/p>\n

There are already five grocery stores within two blocks of the proposed site on Park Avenue near East 115th Street \u2014 and 15 within five blocks \u2014 according to the National Supermarket Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expected the Council to line up behind the mayor on this issue,\u201d said one local Bronx grocer, Carlos Collado.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Menin gave a noncommittal statement, instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs our city confronts ongoing fiscal and affordability crises, the City Council is identifying responsible solutions to lower costs and address food insecurity,\u201d her office said. <\/p>\n

One of the five city-owned grocery stores would be built at La Marqueta at a cost of $30 million, under Mamdani\u2019s plan. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n

The \u201cCity Council Speaker looks forward to receiving details on the mayor\u2019s proposal and assessing its potential impacts on consumers and local small businesses, including bodegas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Menin\u2019s office declined to comment beyond that statement.<\/p>\n

The local food industry believes it could have an ally in Menin since she used to be a small business owner herself, running Vine restaurant in lower Manhattan until it was badly damaged on 9\/11. She also founded a non-profit advocacy group, Wall Street Rising, to help small businesses in the area in the wake of the terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n

The grocery store at La Marqueta won\u2019t open until 2029, according to Mamdani\u2019s office, but the city is expected to issue a request for proposals as soon as June for someone to operate the site, sources said. Grocers believe they have just weeks to rally local pols to their cause.<\/p>\n

Council Speaker Julie Menin issued a cool response to Mamdani\u2019s grocery-store plan. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are actively holding meetings with borough presidents and we put in a request this week to meet with the speaker,\u201d said Anthony Pena, a supermarket owner and president of the National Supermarket Association.<\/p>\n

The first city-run grocery store is set to open in one of the outer boroughs sometime next year, according to the mayor\u2019s office. Mamdani has released few details about his plan, one of the far-left campaign promises that saw him to an upset election victory last year.<\/p>\n

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He said Tuesday that the city would offer lower prices on a \u201ccore\u201d group of staples<\/a>, like bread, milk and eggs.<\/p>\n

New York City Economic Development Corporation reps told Pena at a recent meeting that city-owned stores would offer a roughly 30% discount on 100 items, he told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know our neighborhoods and businesses better than anyone,\u201d Pena said.<\/p>\n

Local grocers oppose the mayor\u2019s grocery store plan. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n

City Hall should \u201cspeak to the experts first and maybe it wouldn\u2019t look so foolish putting $30 million figure out there,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Pena said the owner of the City Fresh Market, located just two blocks from La Marqueta, asked him if he should sell his business.<\/p>\n

Bill Cook of ACNY Developers was puzzled by the city\u2019s decision to set up shop in Harlem after it gave him tax breaks to build an apartment building with 8,500 square feet of space for a grocery store just four blocks from La Marqueta.<\/p>\n

The site benefitted from the city\u2019s years-old \u201cFRESH\u201d program, which offers tax and zoning incentives to open grocery stores in designated areas of the city.<\/p>\n

Mayor Mamdani celebrated his first 100 days as mayor on April 12. Luiz Rampelotto\/EuropaNewswire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

He\u2019s yet to find a commercial tenant for the site, which was designed by a supermarket architect, where he\u2019s hoping to charge a competitive $50 per square foot, or $500,000 a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still a better deal than charging taxpayers $30 million,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n

Menin is facing lobbying from local grocers after having a number of clashes with the mayor since he took office in January.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s criticized his and Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s plan to imposed a so-called \u201cpied-\u00e0-terre tax\u201d on secondary homes<\/a> worth $5 million or more. Menin also slammed the mayor\u2019s threat to increase property taxes in order to close the city\u2019s budget gap, among other criticism.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City grocers are lobbying Council Speaker Julie Menin to oppose Mayor Mamdani\u2019s plan to open city-run…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[288,301,1489,469,19077,9,56,63,65,64,9936,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-201267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-city-council","10":"tag-commercial-real-estate","11":"tag-harlem","12":"tag-julie-menin","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-nyc-headlines","17":"tag-nyc-news","18":"tag-supermarkets","19":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}