FYI
From: Press (EOM) <Press@xxxxxx<mailto:Press@xxxxxx>>
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2022 3:07 PM
To: Press (EOM) <Press@xxxxxx<mailto:Press@xxxxxx>>
Subject: PRESS RELEASE: Mayor Bowser Clears Path to Bring a New Grocery Store
to Ward 7
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PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 27, 2022
CONTACT:
LaToya Foster (EOM) – (202) 727-5011;
latoya.foster@xxxxxx<mailto:latoya.foster@xxxxxx>
Natalia Vanegas (DMPED) – (202) 769-7751;
natalia.vanegas@xxxxxx<mailto:Natalia.vanegas@xxxxxx>
Mayor Bowser Clears Path to Bring a New Grocery Store to Ward 7
After 20 years, the District Can Deliver a Supermarket and Advance Food
Justice at Capitol Gateway Marketplace
(WASHINGTON, DC) – Today, Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Office of the Deputy
Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) announced a plan for a new
grocery store to come to the long-vacant retail site at Capitol Gateway
Marketplace, located in Ward 7 at the intersection of East Capitol Street NE
and 58th Street NE.
“Earlier this month, we were proud to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new
Lidl Food Market at Skyland and today, we will restart this long-stalled
project and take the steps necessary to deliver a full-service grocer and other
retail amenities to the residents of Ward 7,” said Mayor Bowser. “Our
residents and families East of the River deserve an array of fresh and healthy
food options and we will not stop until that goal is fulfilled.”
Mayor Bowser has requested the Council of the District of Columbia authorize
the use of eminent domain in order to initiate action at the long-stalled
Capitol Gateway Marketplace and make the long-promised grocery store a reality.
Absent eminent domain authority, the site – located in an area underserved by
fresh food retailers – will likely continue to sit vacant until at least 2037,
since there is no legal or financial reason for the developer to advance the
project.
Plans for a grocer and mixed-use building at the site were introduced in
January 2002 as part of a Planned Unit Development (PUD) that also envisioned
senior housing, affordable, moderate, and market-rate housing units for
purchase and rent. The Capitol Gateway Marketplace was to include a grocery
store, a sit-down restaurant and a mixed-use building with 312 residential
units and 18,000 SF of ground-floor retail uses. In 2016, the retail anchor,
Walmart, abruptly withdrew from the project. Since then, the developer has not
delivered a grocery store, other retail or any residential units, and the
entire site has sat vacant.
The need for a new grocer in the Ward 7 community is urgent. Food access is a
critical social determinant of health, and it is in the public interest to
provide where lacking. There are currently only two existing full-service
grocery stores in Ward 7, serving 80,669 residents, of which 92% are African
American. Only 3 of the District’s 79 full-service grocers are located East of
the River. By comparison, some neighborhoods west of the river average one
grocery store per 10,000 residents. The Capitol Gateway Marketplace site is
located in an area census tract defined as having low income and low food
access by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The delivery of a
new grocer at the site would put an additional 10,700 residents living East of
the River within one mile of a grocer.
The eminent domain authority is one of several critical steps to bringing a new
grocer to the site. DMPED has also submitted a contract for Walmart to pay the
District $6.685 million to take assignment of its sublease, which will help the
District move forward with future development at the site. In addition, DMPED
has secured a preliminary commitment from one of the largest grocery store
operators in the area to deliver an approximately 55,000 square feet grocery
store that would anchor the Capitol Gateway Marketplace and bring fresh food
options to the community. DMPED will work to make a formal announcement on the
grocery store in the coming weeks.
“Providing access to fresh food and advancing delayed projects are top
priorities for Mayor Bowser,” said Deputy Mayor John Falcicchio. “On Tuesday,
our partners on the Council will have the opportunity to work with us to
deliver a new supermarket in Ward 7 and fulfill a promise to our residents that
was made at the turn of the century. Food justice is an emergency, and together
we need to take these immediate, bold actions to deliver it.”
Mayor Bowser’s efforts at Capitol Gateway are part of the Mayor’s broader
effort to increase food access to underserved areas of the District. Most
recently, the Mayor created a $58 million Food Access Fund and changed the
Supermarket Tax Credit to focus eligibility on areas most in need of grocery
stores, expand support to more fresh food retailers, and add community
engagement requirements for grocers. Additional food access efforts include the
Nourish DC Collaborative Fund created to provide flexible loans, catalytic
grants, and technical assistance to emerging and existing locally owned small
food businesses in the District.
“Today we are setting in motion a significant breakthrough in the long-stalled
development of Capitol Gateway. When this legislation is passed, we will be on
the fast track to opening another new grocery store in Ward 7. Though the East
End of the District remains underserved, we are making progress to eliminate
food deserts and bring equity to residents of Wards 7 and 8, who live with far
fewer grocery and shopping options than residents who live west of the
Anacostia River,” said Ward 7 Councilmember Vincent C. Gray. “Earlier this year
we broke ground on a new Lidl grocery store in Skyland. We will continue to
find public resources and work with partners in the private sector to develop
retail options and deliver amenities to residents in underserved neighborhoods.”
The Capitol Gateway project began with a $30.8 million HOPE VI grant awarded to
DCHA in 2000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to
redevelop East Capitol Dwellings, Capitol View Plaza, and Capitol View Plaza II
(collectively “Capitol Gateway”). The HOPE VI contract covers a combination of
several parcels bisected by East Capitol Street and adjacent to the Prince
George's County, Maryland line.
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