A full-service grocery store that would serve downtown Hartford and the neighborhoods to the north — seen as a path to easing the “food desert” in the city — could be built around the historic Keney Memorial Clock Tower park.
The location, near the intersection of Albany Avenue and Main Street and not far from Dunkin’ Donuts Park, is one of two locations under consideration. The other is within the Downtown North redevelopment — a block to the south — on “Parcel B” at the corner of Main and Pleasant streets.
The $23 million supermarket project is being led by the Hartford Community Loan Fund and the city of Hartford, and would anchor what is being called the “Healthy Hartford Hub.” Starting with the supermarket, a teaching kitchen, a cafe and parking, the hub would focus on providing shopping options for fresh foods and how to prepare them.
The hub could later be expanded to include a pharmacy, medical clinic, exercise space and, possibly, housing. The total cost of development eventually could be $36 million.
If all approvals and financing are secured, construction on the supermarket could start in a year, and take 18 months to complete. If successful, the development would end more than a decade of failed efforts.
The most recent push also has involved a constellation of other organizations, including the Hartford Food System, Trinity Health, which is the parent of St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, and the the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.
On Thursday, the State Bond Commission approved $8.5 million for a taxpayer-backed loan and other financing for the project through the Capital Region Development Authority. The proposal drew pointed questioning from some commission members who wondered whether it was the best time to finance a grocery store — even though it may be a good project — when the state’s debt levels are reaching a statutory cap. CRDA must still approve the project and will now evaluate it in a committee.
The project’s developer, Affirmative Investments Inc. of Boston, has honed a reputation for developing affordable housing and later branched out into bringing grocery stores to urban areas and pairing them with other services to promote healthy eating and lifestyles. The developments have ranged in size from $12 million to $50 million, including a high-profile project in Brockton, Mass.
The loan fund, a private, not-for-profit that focuses on neighborhood revitalization, also is working with Uplift Solutions of Philadelphia, a supermarket consultant, that is now seeking an operator. There have been discussions with three or four operators, but Affirmative declined to name them Friday.
Tara M. Mizrahi, a principal at Affirmative Investments, said Friday that statistics show the grocery store and larger hub could fill a critical need in Hartford where 1 in 4 residents live in a food desert, an urban area where it is difficult to buy fresh food. Hartford also ranked eighth worst in the nation among same-sized cities for providing low-income residents access to healthy foods; and in Connecticut, Hartford ranked last among all towns and cities for population at risk of “food insecurity,” she said.
“Some of the statistics are jaw-dropping,” Mizrahi said. “This is a great opportunity to meet those needs and an opportunity to serve downtown Hartford at the same time.”
There also is a dramatic contrast with suburban towns. In West Hartford, for example, there are eight, full-service grocery stores, and in Hartford, there is one. Residents of the city’s northern neighborhoods most often shop in Bloomfield, which can take an hour by bus.
Financing supermarkets in urban areas is tricky because such ventures are considered risky. The state subsidy, if approved by CRDA, would be a big boost, but funding would still be complex. The package would include a $1.5 million loan from Trinity Health; $5.8 million in new market tax credits, with investors such as Boston Community Capital and Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp; a grant of $700,000 from the federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative; $3 million in grants from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and other foundations; and a $3 million bank loan.
For a decade, the city had wrestled with opening a second grocery store. The loan fund first got involved in 2012, when the upscale Market at Hartford 21 on Asylum Street closed after just six months — its prices and overhead too high
By 2014, the loan fund had secured a developer and an operator, ShopRite, for a mixed-use development that would prominently include the supermarket, with a similar focus to what is now proposed. The project was to be located on land to what is now just south of Dunkin’ Donuts Park. But the deal collapsed when the operator said the supermarket would not be compatible with the ballpark.
The push by the loan fund was resurrected in 2017 at the urging of Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin.
In addition to Main and Albany, a study identified two other potential sites in the city: the intersections of Main and Windsor streets and Park and Main. A $25 million mixed-use development is planned for Park and Main.
If the clock tower park site is chosen, the 33,000-square-foot supermarket — about half the size of an average Super Stop & Shop and three times the size of an average Trader Joe’s — would be built on city-owned land behind the park, on Winthrop Street. Future development could target either land just to the north or even across Main Street, another block the city wants to redevelop.
“We’re looking at activating the park,” Mizrahi said. “A lot of people, I think, who aren’t used to that area don’t actually really know there is a great park there, and Dunkin’ Donuts Park is right there. There’s a historic church we would like to activate as well.”
Sacred Heart Church on Ely Street closed in 2017 as part of a sweeping consolidation of Catholic churches in the Archdiocese of Hartford. The church is now for sale for $425,000, according to a listing on Loop.net.
If the Downtown North option is selected, it is likely the store would face north at the corner of Pleasant and Main streets. The city has selected Randy Salvatore and his RMS Cos. of Stamford to develop Downtown North on parcels surrounding the ballpark, but the city has not yet approved a formal contract with him. Salvatore has had discussions with the loan fund and its consultants, however.
