Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first city-owned grocery store will be in East Harlem and cost about $30 million, a report said Sunday.
The store will be in La Marqueta, a marketplace under the train tracks running over Park Avenue, and be up and running for business by the end of his first term in 2029, according to the New York Times.
La Marqueta is already owned by the city.
Mamdani was expected to announce the Manhattan market plan at the party he was throwing at a Queens concert hall Sunday to celebrate his first 100 days in office, a milestone that passed Friday.
The store would be the first of five city-owned groceries the mayor made bold promises to build during his campaign.
Mamdani’s proposal for the East Harlem store would eat up nearly half of the $70 million he proposed for the five-store program as recently as February.
His plan was to put one market in each of the five boroughs.
He thinks the move will lower food costs for poorer New Yorkers.
“We cannot accept a status quo where even the most basic necessity — putting food on the table — feels out of reach,” Mamdani told the Times in a statement.
“This is about ensuring that every New Yorker, regardless of income or ZIP code, has access to fresh, healthy food at a price they can afford,” he said.
The store would operate out of La Marqueta for no rent and offer groceries at a discount rate.
