NEW YORK, NY –
On April 14, Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani, Deputy Mayor Julie Su and the NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) announced La Marqueta as the first site identified for the City’s municipal grocery store program.
The 9,000-square-foot store in East Harlem will be constructed from the ground up and is expected to open by 2029. The first City-owned grocery store is expected to open in late 2027. The Mamdani administration plans to open one store in each borough by the end of the Mayor’s first term.
The city-owned grocery initiative aims to deliver affordable, high-quality groceries that provide meaningful savings to New Yorkers and strengthen neighborhood food access citywide. Mayor Mamdani has allocated $70 million in capital funds for the development of the five sites.
“When corporations control every part of the food supply chain, prices go up, basic necessities become luxuries and workers and customers both lose,” said Mayor Mamdani. “A public option allows us to intervene where the market has failed. We cannot accept a status quo where even the most fundamental needs — putting food on the table — feel out of reach. This is about ensuring that every New Yorker, regardless of income or ZIP code, has access to fresh, healthy food at a price they can afford”.
Under the model, NYC will own the land and cover overhead costs like rent and construction. A private operator, selected through a request for proposals, will manage daily operations and be contractually required to pass savings directly to customers on a core basket of everyday staples.
Located in the heart of East Harlem, La Marqueta is one of six public markets operated by NYCEDC. The site supports more than 20 small businesses and 120 workers, including restaurants, art vendors and community organizations.
Opened in 1936 by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia as the Park Avenue Retail Market, La Marqueta was created to bring East Harlem’s pushcart vendors — predominantly Jewish and Italian — under one roof and expand and affordable access to fresh food for working-class New Yorkers. As waves of Puerto Rican, Dominican, Cuban, and Mexican immigrants transformed the neighborhood into Spanish Harlem in the decades that followed, the market evolved, becoming “La Marqueta.”
Mayor Mamdani’s decision to site New York City’s first public grocery store at La Marqueta continues that legacy: using public infrastructure to deliver affordable food to working class New Yorkers.
