Bradenton close to bringing grocery store, fast-food restaurant to this vacant triangle
A developer is close to fulfilling his commitment by bringing a 25,000-square-foot grocery store to a vacant property, which might also become the home of Bradenton’s newest McDonald’s restaurant.
Peter D’Addeo, who first met with Bradenton’s Community Redevelopment Agency in August 2020, updated the board Wednesday on his effort to secure a grocery store. He told officials that Ideal Food Basket has signed a letter of intent to bring one of its supermarkets to the area.
According to D’Addeo, McDonald’s has shown interest in building one of its standalone fast-food restaurants on the 3.4-acre property in the 200 block of 13th Avenue West, as well. Official plans have not been finalized, but D’Addeo said he hopes to come back to the board with more details soon.
“Those two tenants are what we need to move the project forward,” D’Addeo told the CRA board.
Katerina Gerakios-Siren, executive director of Bradenton’s CRA, said there are still several aspects for the CRA and Bradenton City Council to officially vote on. D’Addeo is expected to seek some of those approvals during a public meeting on Oct. 13.
“It still has approvals to go through, but we’re thrilled that we’re this close to bringing something to the community,” Gerakios-Siren said.
CRA leaders have struggled to fill the triangle-shaped property for more than a decade. Proposals have come to the board before, but they never came to fruition, leaving limited access to fresh food in that part of town.
A 2019 report from the United States Department of Agriculture found that around 15% of households in that area do not have access to a vehicle and the nearest supermarket is more than a half-mile away. The planned grocery store would help to resolve food access concerns for those residents.
“I’m glad it’s going to be a grocery store and the McDonald’s could attract more tenants. I’m glad we’re this far, and I think we’re close to having a deal,” Tim Polk, one of the city’s former planning directors, said during a public comment opportunity.
Ideal Food Basket is a subsidiary of America’s Food Basket, a supermarket chain that operates more than 50 stores, mostly in the northeast part of the country. D’Addeo previously told the board that he has development experience with a host of other grocery chains, such as Whole Foods Market.
In 2012, Bradenton officials held a groundbreaking ceremony for a Save-A-Lot grocery store that was slated to be built as part of a Minnie L. Rogers Plaza, named after the local civil rights leader who secured federal funds to build an activity center for minority children.
Construction of that plaza never moved forward, but Wednesday’s update has the CRA feeling more confident in the likelihood of actually building a grocery store on the property.
“You’ve done an excellent job of bringing us some almost-sure possibilities so we can figure out how to finish the deal on our end,” Councilman Patrick Roff said, who serves as the chairman of the CRA board.
D’Addeo’s project still faces some challenges, specifically dealing with the awkward shape of the site and Bradenton’s form-based code that guides development. Based on the form-based code, the grocery store would be forced to put its rear along the property line along 13th Avenue West.
But the back of a grocery store typically serves as a delivery and loading area, which would cause noise issues for neighbors across the street. D’Addeo explained that he would prefer to bend the rules and place the grocery store away from the property line, with the back of the store along the neighboring railroad tracks, creating less noise for nearby residents.
The CRA board did not take official action to approve that change but seemed open to the suggestion. During public meetings on Oct. 13, D’Addeo is expected to request a loan from the city to pay for the interior development of the grocery store as well as a rent subsidy loan from the CRA.
