New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to open a $30 million, city-owned grocery store in East Harlem is aimed for a site that was already approved for a $25 million public upgrade years ago – setting the stage for a bizarre boondoggle that has perplexed local business leaders, The Post has learned.
La Marqueta, the food-focused market between East 111th and East 119th Streets under the elevated Metro North tracks on Park Avenue – is where Mamdani last month proposed to open a government-owned supermarket. Unlike neighboring stores, the new grocer would be able to offer rock-bottom prices because it wouldn’t pay rent or taxes.
That same site, however, already won city approval from the city’s Economic Development Corporation nearly a decade ago for a $25 million project to redevelop La Marqueta – bringing the total price tag of the market’s proposed makeover to a staggering $55 million, city officials confirmed.
“The $30 million is an outrageous number” by itself, said Stephen Zagor, adjunct associate professor of food studies at Columbia Business School. “You’d expect the doorknobs and cash registers to be solid gold.”
“And to think there is another $25 million allocated years ago for the rest of La Marqueta, which is well past its prime, I’d think they would have to revisit that,” Zagor added.
According to the 2017 plan, presented by EDC officials to local business executives earlier this month, La Marqueta could get a playground, a dog park, outdoor seating and a market that “will offer fresh produce, grocery items, prepared foods, and public seating in a food hall environment.”
Mamdani never mentioned the EDC’s pre-existing project when he unveiled his plans for the public grocery stores for the first time last month, said Anthony Pena, president of the National Supermarket Association.
City officials have “not been transparent and open about anything they are doing,” Pena said of the La Marqueta plans.
In one detail that has sparked particular disbelief, the EDC’s proposal calls for a parking lot that’s outfitted with charging stations for electric vehicles.
“Electric vehicles tend to be more expensive so are they catering to a higher income market?” Zagor said. “It sounds like they aren’t focused on what they are trying to do in serving East Harlem residents.”
The mayor has allocated $70 million in total for the five city-owned stores, one in each borough. That works out to an average of $10 million each for the remaining four stores – raising even more questions about why the city wants to shell out so much cash for the East Harlem location, Pena said.
On May 18, Mamdani announced plans to build a public grocery store in the Bronx, a 20,000-square-foot facility in Hunts Point that will open next year. It will be part of a residential development in the Spofford Juvenile Detention facility, which closed in 2011.
A 9,000-square-foot grocery store in Manhattan would typically cost a third of what Mamdani is proposing, executives say – sparking further consternation about a shop that will compete with more than a dozen existing stores in the East Harlem neighborhood.
“They are going to spend $10 million on a 20,000 square foot store and $30 million on a 9,000-square-foot store],” Pena said. “There is a massive disconnect right now and there are more questions than answers.”
In response to a query by The Post, the Economic Development Corporation confirmed that the $30 million store Mamdani has proposed and the agency’s years-old, $25 million revamp are separate investments.
The $30 million will be used for “the ground up construction and fit-out of the public grocery store as well as back of house needs and parking with EV charging capability,” the agency said. It declined to elaborate further on the costs.
None of the $25 million will be used for La Marqueta’s public grocery store, EDC confirmed in a statement to The Post. It also revealed that the grocery store along with an adjacent parking lot will be located at the north end of La Marqueta between East 117th Street and East 119th Street.
At a meeting earlier this month between a trade group representing grocery stores and the city’s Economic Development Corporation, city officials presented a PDF detailing a redevelopment plan that was created before the pandemic. Funds for the project “have already been committed” through the NYCEDC, City Council and the city’s Neighborhood Redevelopment Fund, according to the PDF.
The project has been put on hold for years due to the pandemic when non-essential projects were suspended and then because of a massive MTA capital improvement project above La Marqueta that started in 2023, say sources who were involved in the design phase.
“NYCEDC is working with the East Harlem community and relevant stakeholders including small businesses to help inform how La Marqueta’s public grocery store can help strengthen neighborhood food access, provide quality jobs and make New York City more affordable for everyone,” the agency said in a statement.
“NYCEDC is also working on the redevelopment of La Marqueta’s retail market and looks forward to sharing more information soon.”
Meanwhile, other tenants at La Marqueta are also in the dark about the city’s plans for the historic site, which originally opened in 1936 by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia as a venue for pushcart vendors.
“The EDC’s plans for the spaces have changed so many times,” said Bella Karakas, co-founder of Eterra, a shared commercial kitchen that opened four years ago between East 114th and East 113th streets.
The Urban Garden Center, which joined La Marqueta in 2010, is facing an uncertain future amidst the changes at La Marqueta.
The center was moved in 2023 several blocks south from its original 20,000 square foot location in the market between 116th and 118th Street because of the MTA’s Park Avenue Viaduct project.
Its owner, Dimitri Gatanis, lost half of his space in the market and has seen sales drop precipitously since the move. He’s uncertain whether he’ll be allowed to move back to his old location – and worries that he’ll be facing more challenges when the city-owned grocery store opens.
“Are they going to start selling potted herbs or plants as most grocery stores in the city do?” Gatanis told The Post. “It’s all very murky.”
