Facing a worsening food desert, Hazelwood residents may finally get the grocery store they’ve sought

An innovation center planned for Hazelwood could feature a worker-owned cooperative grocery store, which neighborhood groups hope to build by 2027 to address the area’s scarce food options.

The planned three-story Sarah Dixon Innovation Center would feature a greenhouse on the top floor with fish and fresh produce for sale at the grocery store below, and a parking lot on the lower level with around 55 stalls, as well as a first-floor, indoor waiting area for those taking public transit.

At a Wednesday evening meeting at the Hazelwood YMCA, community groups POORLAW and GH-CARED shared plans on the formation of the co-op grocery that also featured a wellness center to educate the public on healthy lifestyles, and a credit union. The specialty architectural firm StoreMasters is spearheading the design of the building, with a total estimated cost of $21 million.

“We know we want to include all pieces,” said Scott Gerke, architect at StoreMasters, “but it matters that all these are the appropriate size and scale for the community.” A second market study will be released later this month, to determine the appropriate size of the innovation center proportionate to cost, but design estimates have it at 44,000 square feet.

It’s been 15 years since Dimperios Market closed and left Hazelwood without a large-scale grocery store from which to purchase fresh produce as well as other pantry items. The closure of the Hazelwood Rite Aid on Second Avenue in January 2023 heightened that need.

“It was a big loss for Hazelwood,” said Dianne Shenk, owner of the only store in Hazelwood stocking fresh food essentials, Dylamato’s Market. Shenk notes an increase in sales of bread, iced tea and milk at her store since the Rite Aid closed.

The food available at Rite Aid “wasn’t fresh, but it was something, not just potato chips and cigarettes,” said Barb Warwick, the city councilor representing the neighborhood, and a longtime community and Hazelwood Initiative member.

A new model for Pittsburgh

The grocery store would be Pittsburgh’s first co-op grocery owned by the people who work there. The East End Food Co-Op in Point Breeze North, by contrast, is a member-owned grocery. The Hazelwood project would be modeled after Gem City Market in Dayton, Ohio.

Around 40 workers could be hired, and would share ownership of the store, according to Kevin McPhillips, executive director and CEO of the Pennsylvania Center for Employee Ownership.

“The underpinning [of the co-op] is twofold: provide a grocery store for an area that desperately needs it and develop anchors in the community,” said McPhillips, who helped to lead the July 10 training session on worker cooperatives.

Worker cooperatives tend to stay in the community and create jobs because they are democratically owned by the community, McPhillips added.

Community members can participate as worker-owners, members or shoppers.

Leading the effort are the Greater Hazelwood Coalition Against Racial and Ethnic Disparities [GH-CARED] and People of Origin Rightfully Loved and Wanted [POORLAW], both of which aim to address injustice within the Black and brown community.

The store is pioneered by POORLAW’s co-founder Saundra Cole-McKamey and GH-CARED’s Pastor Lutual Love, and is set to be built at 4800 Second Ave. The property is largely owned by the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, which gave site control to GH-CARED and POORLAW.

Finding the funding

“A food desert is God made, a food apartheid is man made,” said Love, a pastor at Praise Deliverance Church and co-founder of GH-CARED, about Hazelwood’s longstanding food access problem, where the nearest grocery store is a $20 Uber ride away.

Love, Cole-McKamey and others have for years emphasized the need for a grocery store that offers fresh food in the community, which is changing in part due to the redevelopment of the 178-acre Hazelwood Green site, just west of Second Avenue.

But funding might prove difficult.

“I’m 1,000% supportive,” said Warwick. “It’s definitely an exciting project but unfortunately projects like these are hard to find funding and backing for.”

Such projects are typically funded through a combination of tax credits, public grants, private fundraising and business loans.

The Heinz Endowments*, which is one of the foundations that together own Hazelwood Green, awarded grants for pre-development of the store in 2022 and this year, totaling little more than $83,000.

“We have been supporting the community in their efforts to bring a grocery store back to the community for some time now,” said Rob Stephany, director of community and economic development at The Heinz Endowments .

Heinz, the Richard King Mellon Foundation and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundations have created Almono LP, which owns most of Hazelwood Green. Almono “is supportive of the neighborhood’s efforts to provide fresh food in the Greater Hazelwood Community and has been in regular discussions with the community representatives that are leading efforts to locate a grocery store in the Hazelwood neighborhood,” according to a statement issued by the partnership in response to questions from PublicSource. Almono anticipates “continued collaboration.”

The federal New Market Tax Credit Program could raise about $4.5 million by 2025 for the development and construction of the project, according to Peter Byford, principal at Advantage Capital, which is working with GH-CARED and POORLAW on the project. The tax credit program is designated to support investment in communities with high levels of poverty and low median family incomes.

The store would still have to make a profit. Would people shop there?

“It’s hard to make money, as a small business, I’m concerned about them doing it all,” said Shenk, noting that there are large grocery outlets a few miles away, including Giant Eagle locations, Walmart and Costco, where she says many Hazelwood residents shop for variety and bulk. She is less concerned about the store competing directly with her. “We are small and nimble, the way we do it is unique,” she said.

Warwick also worries that convenience stores may compete with the co-op, adding  new challenges once it opens. “A big thing is to make sure [the Rite Aid lot] doesn’t become a dollar store.”

According to a market feasibility study conducted by development firm Oak Moss Associates in 2022, the store could be generating sustainable revenues within two to three years of opening.

Hazelwood residents have lacked easy and consistent access to fresh fruits and vegetables for decades, due to the lack of grocery stores in the neighborhood. This is known as a food desert.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Hazelwood is an area with both low income and low food access. The former coal and steel powerhouse fell into significant economic decline after mills shut down, contributing to high levels of poverty and low median family income compared to the average for the Pittsburgh MSA.

Giant Eagle stepped in to fill the food access gap in July 2023 with a mobile food market that makes rounds in Hazelwood every Wednesday and Saturday, and also serves other neighborhoods. The mobile market accepts Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children [WIC] in a community where upwards of one in three households depend on SNAP to meet nutritional health requirements, according to Census Bureau data . But it is not a permanent brick-and-mortar store.

The Wednesday meeting was an early step in letting the public know what a worker cooperative is and garnering support.

“ By educating the community, people will be more knowledgeable and advocate for it more, which means funding might be easier,” said McPhillips.

*PublicSource receives funding from The Heinz Endowments.

Laura Turbay is an editorial intern at PublicSource and can be reached at laura@publicsource.or g

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