Mayor Mamdani announces second city-owned grocery store to open in Hunts Point by 2027

The 20,000-square-foot store will be located at The Peninsula, the mixed-use redevelopment of the former Spofford Juvenile Detention Facility in Hunts Point. City officials said the store is the first city-owned grocery store to open, expected to open in 2027 and will provide discounted staple goods, including items such as bread and eggs, as part of Mamdani’s campaign promise to expand access to affordable groceries citywide.

“Working families in the Bronx have been forced to pay the price for a city that keeps getting more expensive while government looks the other way. That has to change. Our administration is putting communities like Hunts Point at the center of our work to address the affordability crisis,” said Mayor Mamdani.

“Making sure every New Yorker can buy fresh, affordable groceries in their own neighborhood is a key part of our affordability agenda. We are proud to begin this work in the South Bronx and remain committed to opening a store in every borough before the end of our first term.” 

The announcement comes as Hunts Point — home to the 329-acre Hunts Point Food Distribution Center, the nation’s largest wholesale food hub — continues to face high rates of food insecurity.

The market supplies roughly 25% of New York City’s produce, 35% of its meat and 45% of its fish, yet many neighborhood residents struggle to access affordable fresh food. About 68% of Hunts Point households rely on SNAP benefits, according to Census Bureau data analyzed by the Citizen Committee for Children for New York.

Because of inconsistencies in pricing and food quality, Bronx residents are often forced to travel across the borough —or even to nearby boroughs and Westchester County— to access affordable and fresh groceries.

The Hunts Point store is the second location identified under the N.Y.C. Groceries initiative. In April, during his 100-day speech, Mamdani announced that the first site would be located at La Marqueta in East Harlem and pledged to bring one city-owned grocery store to each borough by the end of his term in 2029.

The grocery store will anchor part of The Peninsula, a multi-phase redevelopment project led by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) that transformed the former controversial Spofford Juvenile Detention Facility, which closed in 2011, into a mixed-use affordable housing campus. The project includes 740 units of affordable housing, public green space, an early childhood education center, recreational facilities and commercial space.

“The selection of The Peninsula is a historic win for Hunts Point, and we are very proud that the Bronx will be the first borough where the first N.Y.C. Grocery store will open by end of 2027 and serve a community that has been neglected in the past,” said NYCEDC Interim President & CEO Jeanny Pak. 

Mamdani launched the municipal grocery store program in partnership with NYCEDC in April as part of a broader effort to reduce the cost of everyday household goods. While the stores will be publicly owned, the city plans to contract third-party operators to manage day-to-day operations under city-set standards for pricing, labor and reporting.

The administration has also launched an online portal seeking potential grocery store sites in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. The city has allocated $70 million in capital funding toward the development of the five planned stores.