As part of an effort to highlight the local impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) awards made by the Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, Director Donna J. Gambrell traveled today to North Philadelphia to celebrate the opening of a new full-service supermarket with Mayor Michael Nutter and other state and local officials.
The opening of The Fresh Grocer is momentous; it marks the culmination of a project to renovate and upgrade historic Progress Plaza, the nation's oldest African-American owned and operated shopping center.
The Fresh Grocer and Progress Plaza benefited from over $13 million in New Markets Tax Credits and $500,000 in Recovery Act funding from the CDFI Fund through awards to Philadelphia-based CDFI, The Reinvestment Fund, which financed the complete renovation of the center and construction of the new supermarket.
This project is significant as it exemplifies the importance of how the partnership of public and private investment can provide the financing needed to bring supermarkets into underserved communities, accomplished in this case through The Reinvestment Fund's Fresh Food Financing Initiative.
In a neighborhood hit hard by the current recession that has been without a supermarket for more than a decade, the Fresh Grocer brings 46,000 square feet of food retail, improved access to fresh foods and 225 new jobs.
Remarks by Director Gambrell at the Grand Opening of The Fresh Grocer