A grocery store may come to this food desert. Here’s why Bradenton officials are upset
The latest update on a long-awaited shopping center is straining the relationship between Bradenton leaders and the project developer.
Speaking with the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency in July, Peter D’Addeo surprised the board by sharing that Ideal Food Basket, a well-known grocer in the northeast, had signed a tentative lease to become the anchor grocery store at the planned plaza.
Ideal Food Basket first agreed in September to build a 25,000-square-foot grocery store in the area. Those plans fell apart earlier this year when corporate leaders backed away from the deal.
City leaders have sought a use for the triangle-shaped, 3.4-acre property in the 200 block of 13th Ave. W. for more than 10 years, but the reversal stunned Bradenton officials who were ready to move in a different direction.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture labels the area as a food desert, which is defined as a neighborhood where residents lack access to vehicles and the nearest grocery store is more than half a mile away. A “relatively high” number of residents (13.5%) lack access to a vehicle, according to a 2019 USDA report.
D’Addeo’s news comes after a community town hall meeting in May where residents who live near the property in the 200 block of 13th Ave. W.. said they no longer wanted to see a grocery store built there.
Local residents push for pharmacy instead
Residents said they believed a planned 7,000-square-foot grocery store coming to 420 Ninth Ave. W., the site of the old Miller’s Market, would be enough to satisfy the area’s needs. The new grocery store is just five blocks away from the incoming shopping center.
Board members chastised D’Addeo for working to secure a grocery store, even though it no longer matched the community’s desire. Residents said they would prefer to see a neighborhood pharmacy, such as Walgreens or CVS, instead.
“I am very concerned that you continued working on a grocer for that site,” said Councilwoman Pamela Coachman. “We left that meeting with a clear understanding that we don’t need a grocer.”
“To hear from a developer that Ideal Food Basket signed a lease yesterday really chaps my hide,” Councilwoman Marianne Barnebey added.
D’Addeo responded to say he was never under the impression that the CRA didn’t want a grocery store. On the same day as the town hall meeting, he recalled speaking with Aldi representatives about the possibility of bringing in the budget grocer to the site.
“I was never informed that I wasn’t supposed to seek a food store anymore,” D’Addeo said.
Speaking with the Bradenton Herald, Katerina Gerakios-Siren, executive director of Bradenton’s CRA, rejected the developer’s excuse. In a July 12 email, told D’Addeo that the CRA and local residents no longer wanted a grocery store.
“This was coming from the community,” Gerakios-Siren said. “This is a project where we really want the community and our advisory board to give us their feedback.”
Financial incentives for grocer may disappear
Gerakios-Siren also explained that the original agreement to secure Ideal Food Basket included roughly $1 million in incentives from the CRA.
Citing Ideal Food Basket’s departure from the deal, the board voted in in April to provide $85,000 toward the opening of a nearby grocery store. With a grocery store back in the picture, board members warned that larger incentives may no longer be available.
“When Ideal Food Basket walked away and everything looked bleak, we committed substantial funds to Miller’s Market,” Councilwoman Jayne Kocher told D’Addeo. “So don’t be expecting us to give the store away like we were before.”
Final approval for the shopping center’s tenants comes from the CRA. Other planned tenants at the shopping center include a McDonald’s restaurant with a drive-thru, a Subway and a Family Dollar.
While board members agreed to bring in those tenants, they also voted to have D’Addeo put the Ideal Food Basket agreement on hold while he pursues other anchor options.
D’Addeo did not discuss a timeline for the project and it’s unclear when construction would begin.
This story was originally published August 4, 2022 at 2:20 PM.
