Wholesome Foods is coming to Crown Heights -- Nostrand and Atlantic Ave

whynot_31 said:

Some people do not like the "FRESH Program", which (in exchange for hosting a grocery store) will allow the developers of 1519 Bedford to build 11 Stories instead of 8.    I believe they are trying to argue that Union Market is an upscale market, and the zoning is intended to reward developers in low income neighborhoods to host a chain like Fine Fare.

http://www.brooklynian.com/discussion/44338/goodbye-huge-epbedford-car-wash-and-gas-station

Union Market is upscale. Some of its items are more expensive than those in Whole Foods. 

this will not be a union market,run by the same people, but different marketing plan. my complaint is that having lived here for eleven years, during which franklin ave was a desolate strip of streets, and there were no places to go or shop to get  the things that appealed to me, It was always a schlep to go to the coop or another neighborhood.  And now that there are other people with means that can sustain a better market, it seems that every impediment is thrown in front of it.  Western Crown Heights isnt such a low income neighborhood.  There are plenty of middle class black families that would and could shop there.  I was in Wholesome foods last night, and it certainly wasnt all white gentrifiers.  

I agree, if the purpose of the legislation was to address "food deserts" (wherein single mothers presently struggle to purchase fresh veggies with their limited EBT funds from the local bodega), leasing to a Union Market in an area where condos routinely sell for more than $900 PSF doesn't match the intent.

Are those intentions codified in the regs to the degree that such a use is prohibited?

....time will tell.

In Manhattan, some politicians are trying to waive the taxes of supermarkets they deem affordable:

 https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20170214/chelsea/supermarket-tax-cut-legislation-corey-johnson-gale-brewer