NEW YORK — The city’s Industrial Development Agency said Tuesday that it approved $4.5 million in financial incentives to renovate a vacant building into a new Fine Fare supermarket in the Williamsbridge neighborhood of the Bronx.
The 19,000-square-foot supermarket will create 80 new jobs and represent a new investment of $4.8 million. It is to receive $4.5 million in sales and real-estate tax exemptions over 25 years under the city’s FRESH (Food Retail Expansion to Support Health) program to finance new food stores in designated areas.
Construction of the new store, to be operated by East Gun Hill Road Food, is expected to begin this spring. It will become the fourth Bronx-based supermarket to have received assistance under the FRESH program and the 11th since the program began.
“Today’s approval of the 11th FRESH supermarket, the fourth in the Bronx, is further proof that this program is succeeding at creating healthy food options in underserved neighborhoods,” NYCIDA Chairman Seth W. Pinsky said. “The construction of the new Fine Fare supermarket will lead to 80 new jobs, induce a private investment of nearly $5 million and, most importantly, provide area residents with expanded access to nutritional food.”