New York Eyes Incentives to Bring Grocers to Poor Neighborhoods

New York is courting full-service grocery chains to improve the retail food offer in the city’s poor neighborhoods. A proposal to provide zoning and tax incentives to grocers that meet requirements for space allotted to fresh foods and other perishables won City Planning Commission approval Wednesday and now goes to the full City Council. A New York Times report states the plan has “broad support” among food policy experts, supermarket leaderships and City Council members.

Essentially, the proposal opens the way for developers to build stores on a larger footprint than current zoning generally permits. The article pointed out that, under the proposal, a residential building with fresh-food retail could exceed the allowable square footage requirements by up to 20,000 square feet.

Ben Thomases, the city’s food policy coordinator, was quoted in the article as saying that the new zoning would help make the numbers work. To date, Thomases said, drugstores and other retailers have had the advantage of higher profit margins and the ability to pay higher rents as a result.