Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants New York to open city-owned grocery stores in each borough, and the first announced site is a vacant lot under the Metro-North tracks in Harlem. The Manhattan store, to be built on the grounds of the 92-year-old La Marqueta public market on 116th Street, is a $30 million project and is expected to open in 2029.
Mamdani says the stores are needed to bring fresh, affordable fare to so-called food deserts across the city. Under the plan, the city would hire a private company to run the stores, require basic items to be priced below the citywide average, and avoid rent and property taxes, which he says would help keep costs down.
The promise is simple enough to explain and hard enough to carry out. The Harlem location is the first announced but the last planned to open, while officials said the city-owned groceries in The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island would open in existing structures. That means the Manhattan store may become the public face of the program even though the other borough sites could come online sooner.
Experts told THE CITY that the Mamdani administration faces real challenges in making the plan work. The biggest question is whether five city-owned groceries would have enough leverage with suppliers to buy and sell at low prices, and how much taxpayers would ultimately subsidize the stores. Chelssy T., a Harlem shopper, said the idea speaks to the strain many New Yorkers feel at the register. “Prices have gone up so much,” she said. “The other day I bought kimchi, a bag of onions and three plums, and that was like $30. I think it’s a great idea.”
For Mamdani, the proposal is part of a broader affordability agenda, but the test will come in the details: whether the city can turn one city-owned grocery in each borough into something more than a campaign promise. The Harlem site gives the idea an address, but the real measure will be whether the stores can stay stocked, stay cheap and survive long enough to matter.
