New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration plans to open a city‑owned grocery store in East Harlem to start fulfilling a campaign pledge to establish one in each of the city’s five boroughs.
The store is set to be built at a historic public market founded in 1936, when Mayor Fiorello La Guardia opened the Park Avenue Retail Market to formalize what had been an informal gathering place for pushcart vendors. The site later became known as La Marqueta.
The city is targeting land it owns at the site that is currently vacant, Mamdani said Sunday while marking his 100th day in office. He noted that nearly 40% of households in the surrounding neighborhood received public assistance or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in the past year.
La Marqueta is at 1590 Park Ave. at East 115th Street, beneath the elevated Metro‑North Railroad tracks running along Park Avenue. It is one of six public markets overseen by New York City’s Economic Development Corp., the city’s primary economic development agency. About 10 vendors operate at the site, according to the city’s public markets website.
The grocery store build‑out is expected to cost about $30 million and would involve the city waiving rent and real estate taxes for the store, according to The New York Times. Mamdani has said the store would offer discounts on basic groceries and provide what he described as “quality jobs.”
The projected cost for the East Harlem location alone exceeds 40% of the $70 million in capital funding Mamdani has proposed to build all five city‑owned grocery stores, the Times reported. The broader plan still requires City Council approval.
His proposal has drawn opposition from billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis, owner of the Gristedes and D'Agostino's supermarket chains in New York, as well as from bodega owners and other grocery operators, who have raised concerns about government‑run stores competing with private businesses.