TROY – The proposed retrofitting of a 20,000-square foot building as the site of a Bargain Grocery on the boundary of the North Central and Downtown neighborhoods would create a foothold in the region for the Utica-based grocery store that serves low-income areas.
“This will be our first reproduceable store. Schenectady will follow on this,” Michael Servello, founder and CEO of Compassion Coalition, who created the Bargain Grocery, said Friday.
Servello first explored the Capital Region for a site two years ago when he investigated opening a store along the Pearl Street corridor in Albany. He determined that the way to proceed is to work with a developer to get the brick-and-mortar store running with Bargain Grocery taking care of the operations.
First Columbia decided that in expanding its investment in the city’s Waterfront District, running north from the Green Island Bridge along River Street, that a grocery store was needed. It has proposed the building at 558 River St. for the location.
The developer and the grocery have cited this area as being a food desert without a major food store within a half mile of the neighborhood. The closest grocery store is the Price Chopper Supermarket across the Hudson River on 19th Street in Watervliet.
“The biggest amenity missing from this neighborhood, and the adjacent downtown area, is a complete grocery store,” Kevin Bette, CEO of First Columbia, said in a statement. Looking at the Utica-based grocery, Bette said Bargain Grocery is a perfect fit. The proposal is before the Troy Planning Commission.
Bargain Grocery also is working with Metroplex in Schenectady to identify a location for a store there, Servello said.
Servello said the goal is to provide healthy food, such as vegetables, fruits and other foodstuffs, to the neighborhood which has a high poverty rate. He said he was unaware that Capital Roots, whose mission is to provide healthy food across the Capital Region’s poorer neighborhoods with inadequate access to food, is located about a block north of the proposed Bargain Grocery location. Servello said he will be meeting with Amy Klein, CEO of Capital Roots.
Bargain Grocery’s Utica operation provides its profits of $15 million to $20 million annually to Compassion Coalition to serve the needs of those in poverty in Oneida County. Plans call for establishing a similar non-profit in Troy.
The last grocery store to open downtown was the Pioneer Food Market, a co-op, that opened in the 6,000-square foot building at 77-81 Congress St. in 2010 and closed a year later.
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Utica grocery's entry into Capital Region market aims at Troy - Times Union
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