On Sept. 4, the City of Tallahassee had a groundbreaking for a city-owned community grocery store on Alabama Street in the Griffin Heights neighborhood. City Commissioner Curtis Richardson says that was the easy part of the project.
"We were told at the groundbreaking that they had not identified an operator yet. But they're working on it. Our neighborhood affairs office is putting out some proposals and hopefully we'll get a response soon, certainly before the store's construction is completed."
Richardson said the neighborhood's residents have been without a full-service grocery store for years, noting even a nearby convenience store on Old Bainbridge Road had recently shut down.
"It's been considered a food desert because they don't have a grocery store within a number of miles of the neighborhood. So this was an opportunity for us to address that very serious issue in their neighborhood. So it would be extremely disappointing if we're not able to identify an operator."
So far, no operator has been found and the small size of the store, around 2,500 square feet versus around 40,000 square feet for a chain supermarket, could make the search even tougher. Still, Richardson said he was confident city staff can find the right person for the job.
