Overview
- The Mamdani administration on Monday named The Peninsula in Hunts Point as the first municipal grocery to open, a 20,000‑square‑foot store slated for 2027.
- The store will anchor a project converting the former Spofford juvenile detention site into a mixed‑use campus with about 740 affordable apartments and community space.
- The program allocates $70 million to build five city‑owned supermarkets, one per borough, with an earlier East Harlem site at La Marqueta targeted for 2029.
- The city will own the real estate and set price and labor standards while contracting private operators, with an operator RFP planned for this summer and a portal now seeking sites in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.
- Hunts Point reports high food insecurity and heavy reliance on public assistance, and bodega groups say waived rent and taxes could undercut small stores as City Council budget hearings later this month review the plan.