Developer drops potential grocery store plan; downtown Wilmington still food desert
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY-TV) — Walking the streets of downtown Wilmington, while you find many amenities, one things you won’t find is a grocery store.
“It’s challenging,” said Terry Espy, former president of the Wilmington Business Alliance.
Espy said the downtown business owners hope to see movement on a chain grocery store.
“The downtown business owners would love to see one,” Espy said.
Last year, Wilmington city council approved a $1.7 million bid from Cape Fear Holdings for property at 305 Chestnut Street.
The property would have become a Publix. Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said the grocery store could have bridged the gap with food access in the downtown area.
“We’ve been trying very hard to bring a grocery store downtown and we thought that we had it with this particular group,” Saffo said. “For one reason or another they decided to pull out and they have not told us why.”
After the city accepted the offer, New Hanover County pulled funding from the Northside Food Co-Op, a non-profit that also wanted to bring a grocery store to the area.
The funding came from The Endowment which said the grant was terminated because “the vision underlying the grant was no longer being contemplated.”
“The fact that we still have food deserts throughout this community and that’s not a priority for our city and county governments and the endowment,” said Harper Peterson, former city mayor and councilman. “That should be front and center.”
Peterson said the city and county leaders should not have assumed a grocery store would have been built.
“I can’t blame the developer I mean they are not accountable to the citizens but the city and county officials are as well as the endowment board,” Peterson said.
Saffo said the city will re-evaluate what they will decide to do with the parcel before putting it up for sale.
“My thinking is that we continue to look for some sort of grocery store chain or in a corporative fashion with The Endowment and the county to maybe visit the food co-op to make it happen,” Saffo said.
WWAY reached out to Cape Fear Holdings and the Northside Food Co-Op for comment, but has not heard back.
