Supermarkets planned for New Orleans’ underserved areas

5th September 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Susan Buchanan
Contributing Writer

In parts of town, residents exit gas stations and “dollar stores” with big bags of groceries in their arms. And they’re not carrying picnic food. It’s what’s for dinner and pantry-stocking for tomorrow’s meals.

The city’s market-deprived communities may have access to decent food soon, however. Some of the estimated 60 percent of supermarkets destroyed in Katrina have been replaced, and more are in the pipeline, with new stores planned for the Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans East and other barren food areas.

The Lower Ninth may be one on the toughest spots in the city to buy a head of lettuce or a piece of fish. “We’re bracketed by two Dollar General stores on St. Claude, selling household items, milk, eggs and packaged and frozen food,” said Tracy Nelson, executive director of the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development. The St. Claude thoroughfare is punctuated with other convenience stores that are long on processed food, chips and candy.

“The nearest supermarkets are in Chalmette,” Nelson noted. “You need a car to get there, and your sales taxes go to St. Bernard Parish, not Orleans.” The closest farmers’ market is Sankofa at 3500 St. Claude, open only on Saturday in the Bywater section of the Ninth Ward.

On August 11, 130 people or so attended a Holy Cross Neighborhood Association meeting in the Lower Ninth to hear abut plans for a supermarket at the former Holy Cross School at N. Rampart and Reynes Streets.“The meeting was very positive though some neighbors said they’d prefer to see business develop on the St. Claude Ave. corridor,” Nelson said. “Traffic isn’t the major concern, since there was traffic when the site was a school,“ she noted. Instead, “it’s a matter of concentrating business activities.“

Nelson continued, saying “but when a choice was presented at the meeting of a supermarket at the old school, or no market at all, people overwhelmingly said they wanted it at the school site.”

Developer Reuben Teague, principal of New Orleans-based Green Coast Enterprises, hopes to revamp the former Holy Cross School for mixed uses, including a grocery store and other retail space, offices for non-profits and housing. Teague said “access to groceries is a high priority for Lower 9th Ward residents, and we hope to partner with Sterling Farms to provide fresh food.”

Founded in New Orleans earlier this year, Sterling Farms is owned and operated by city native and “Treme” Home Box Office star Wendell Pierce, along with grocery operator James Hatchett of Chicago and New Orleans management consultant Troy Henry. They plan to open four grocery stores in the city in the next two years, Henry said. At least one of those sites is slated for the Lower Ninth Ward, one for Gentilly and one for Uptown. Sterling Farms founders spoke at the August 11 community meeting about opening a store at the former Holy Cross School, and are negotiating for that site.

“Sterling Farms hopes to become a premier supermarket group, offering better shopping experiences in New Orleans and other underserved urban markets,” Henry said.

At Robert Fresh Market, Chief Financial Officer Lori Schmitt in New Orleans said “we operate three supermarkets in Orleans, one in Metairie, and hope to reopen our store at St. Claude and Elysian Fields, where we have a lease but are in litigation with the landlord.” The Marigny store was destroyed by Katrina flooding, winds, looters and no power.

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart plans to move into areas needing groceries. Tice White, Wal-Mart spokesman in Jackson, Miss., said “we’re currently working through details with New Orleans Redevelopment Authority regarding our intent to build a Supercenter, approved by NORA, on Chef Menteur Highway in Gentilly.”

He said “we’re also looking specifically at opportunities in New Orleans East, in addition to analyzing other areas within the city to expand, especially underserved and ‘food desert’ areas.” The company has store formats of various sizes that may fit the needs of certain communities, he said.

Wal-Mart operates two stores within New Orleans city limits now and eleven in the greater New Orleans area — not including its Slidell locations—White said.

The Crescent City’s “sliver by the river” on the levee side of St. Charles Ave. has a number of supermarkets, but few shopping options exist in nearby Central City. At the corner of Louisiana and St. Charles avenues, The Fresh Market, based in North Carolina, recently signed a lease for space at the former Borders bookstore, Lisa Klinger, Fresh Market’s chief financial officer, said last week.

“We expect to open sometime next year but don’t have a projected date,” Klinger said. “We’re currently looking at additional sites in the New Orleans area, but don’t have any other sites under lease.” Fresh Market hasn’t received any financing directly from the City of New Orleans, she said.

In March, the Landrieu Admini­stration launched the New Orleans Fresh Food Retailer Ini­tia­tive. Aimee Quirk, the mayor’s advisor for economic development, said “low-interest and forgivable loans are available to grocers from $7 million that the city received in federal, community-development block grants and a private match of $7 million — from Hope Enterprise Corp., a Mississippi-based community development group.” The U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development provided block grants under a Katrina-Rita re­covery program.

“We’ve had a lot of interest, but so far no companies have been funded under the Fresh Food program,” Quirk said. The city has partnered with the Philadelphia-based Food Trust, a nutrition advocacy group, to attract markets, she noted. The city’s Corner Store Initiative, encouraging fruit and vegetable sales, expired in 2008.

The Mid City area in New Orleans needs more markets. Winn-Dixie Stores has signed a lease for 401 No. Carrollton, according to Chris Abadie, sales and leasing executive at Stirling Properties in New Orleans. A Winn-Dixie spokesman in the company’s Florida headquarters declined to comment on that site. But he did say that a company store in Slidell is being remodeled.

When asked, Costco Wholesale Corp. in Washington state wouldn’t comment on industry talk that the company plans to build a membership store at the former Carrollton Shopping Center, located near the intersection of Carrollton Ave. and Interstate-10, across from Xavier University.

As for downtown, Rouses’ store on Baronne Street will open in mid-November, Don Rouse said last week. The more than 40,000-square-foot site is located in the former Sewell Cadillac building. “We have no immediate plans for additional stores in New Orleans but are always looking for new locations,” he said. “The city’s Fresh Food Retailer Initiative program sounds interesting but we haven’t participated in it.”

In the Warehouse District, Poeyfarre Market opened across from the Cotton Mill residence on July 1, filling a vacuum in that area.

Some of the region’s grocers, like Jay Breaux at Breaux Mart, worry about the long-term implications of customers buying staple foods and beverages at drug stores, dollar stores and other non-traditional outlets, and how that may cut into supermarket revenues. Breaux Mart has five stores in Greater New Orleans, including one on Magazine St., and is looking at other sites in the city.

Tennessee-based Dollar General operates ten stores in Orleans Parish. When asked about talk that Dollar General will start selling beer in the city, company spokeswoman Tawn Earnest said “we haven’t applied for any beer licenses in Louisiana.”

Schmitt of Robert Fresh Market and other industry members noted that insurance rates for commercial properties have climbed since Katrina. But with two-thirds of the city’s population now back and in need of three meals a day, New Orleans is a better place for grocers to invest than it was a few years ago.

This article was originally published in the September 5, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper