New supermarket planned for North Philly

Aiming to bring a new source of food to an underserved neighborhood, officials broke ground Wednesday for a shopping center, including a supermarket, in the Ludlow section of North Philadelphia.

Joined by City Council President Darrell L. Clarke, developers Bart Blatstein, president of Tower Investments, and Richard Soloff, CEO of Soloff Realty Development, thrust shovels into the soil of a windblown lot at Ninth Street and Girard Avenue where the shopping center is to be built.

Blatstein said the complex, to be anchored by a Bottom Dollar Foods supermarket and a Dollar General store, will be "providing food to a community that needs it."

The developer, whose credits include the View, a retail and housing complex along Broad Street near Temple University, said that the Ninth Street Marketplace Shopping Center would fill an important need and reflected his dedication to North Philadelphia.

He and others noted that Ludlow has not seen a supermarket in many years.

"The Ludlow community is deserving and in need of this," Blatstein said before the groundbreaking on a blustery morning, as earth movers and other heavy equipment were preparing the 2.4-acre lot for construction.

Clarke said there had been significant development in the neighborhood, especially along Girard.

"There was one thing missing," Clarke said. "We needed a supermarket."

His enthusiasm was shared by Davida Clarke (no relation), a neighborhood resident and mother of one child, who happened to be walking past the ceremony.

"I'm so happy," Davida Clarke said when told about the project. Noting that the nearest supermarket is at Progress Plaza at Broad and Oxford Streets, about a mile away, she said, "We have to go so far."

Officials said the land acquisition and construction costs for the 41,600-square-foot center will total $12 million, all from private investment. Council President Clarke said City Hall's only investment was a property tax abatement.

Soloff said the supermarket would also bring an economic benefit to the neighborhood by creating about 70 jobs.

Clarke said the location of the center was a former industrial site and had been - like thousands of other vacant or abandoned properties in the city - "a blight."

Moreover, he said, "the residents of this community had long expressed an interest in having a supermarket."

Blatstein, who also built the Piazza at Schmidts, a residential and retail complex in Northern Liberties, and is proposing a casino at 15th and Callowhill Streets, said the Ludlow project was smaller in scale than most of his developments, but "is no less important."

John Weidman, deputy executive director of the Food Trust, a national nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia that works to broaden access to healthy, affordable food, called the project "great news for the city, having more grocery stores come into Philadelphia." Weidman said a new supermarket offered the hope of giving residents "more access to healthy foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, and bringing jobs."