Mamdani’s First City-Owned Grocery Store Is Planned for the South Bronx

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that the store would open in the Hunts Point neighborhood next year. Some merchants are pushing back.

A core campaign promise of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who unveiled the plan for Hunts Point in a news conference on Monday, involved opening a city-run grocery store in each borough.Mayor Zohran Mamdani, moving forward with a key campaign promise despite the concerns of some business leaders, announced on Monday that New York City’s first city-owned grocery store will open in Hunts Point in the Bronx next year.The mayor wants to create a 20,000-square-foot store at the Peninsula, an affordable housing development in a neighborhood in the South Bronx with a high poverty rate.Mr. Mamdani has pledged to create five city-owned stores, 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, which he wants to open by 2029.“This 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’s lives,” he said Monday at a rally with union members at the Bronx site.

Mr. Mamdani has proposed building the first city-owned grocery store on this site in the Bronx.

Mr. Mamdani ran for mayor on a platform designed to address the high cost of living, 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.