Mayor Zohran Mamdani, moving forward with a key campaign promise despite the concerns of some business leaders, announced 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 by the end of his first term, with the aim of making groceries more affordable for some shoppers. He previously unveiled plans for a store at La Marqueta in East Harlem in Manhattan<\/a>, which he wants to open by 2029.<\/p>\n \u201cThis store and the Peninsula as a whole will serve as physical proof of our conviction that government can be a force for good, that government can drive change that improves people\u2019s lives,\u201d he said Monday at a rally with union members at the Bronx site.<\/p>\n Mr. Mamdani ran for mayor on a platform designed to address the high cost of living<\/a>, including rising grocery bills. The city plans to waive rent and taxes for the five new grocery stores so that they can offer residents discounted prices on food<\/a>.<\/p>\n But the mayor\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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>.<\/p>\n 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 Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement that she was grateful to Mr. Mamdani for working to \u201cstrengthen food access across the South Bronx.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAccess to affordable, fresh food should not be a luxury determined by ZIP code \u2014 it should be a right,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Justin E. Sanchez, the City Council member who represents the neighborhood, said that it should be a \u201cbountiful oasis of nutritious food, not a desert\u201d and that he welcomed the plans for the store.<\/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.<\/p>\n 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 Hunts Point.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 It noted 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>.<\/p>\n 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 Victoria Melendez, a resident of the development, said at Mr. Mamdani\u2019s rally that the neighborhood needed an affordable and convenient option.<\/p>\n \u201cThis will put a little more money in our pockets for other things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Majora Carter, an entrepreneur and community leader in Hunts Point<\/a>, said that food access had improved in the neighborhood in recent years. She said she had just bought three cases of heirloom tomatoes from a street vendor for $30 and \u201cboth of us were thrilled with the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Carter called the mayor\u2019s goal \u201claudable,\u201d but questioned whether there were ways funding from the city could achieve similar results more quickly.<\/p>\n \u201cCould local grocery stores, green delis and street produce vendors be subsidized with innovative demand-inducing programming that could help folks eat healthier and cheaper?\u201d she said. \u201cThat could start tomorrow.\u201d<\/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 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.<\/p>\n Mr. Garcia said he was prepared to file a lawsuit in hopes of preventing them from opening.<\/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