Bucking a citywide trend, Downtown is about to get two new grocery stores.
The new supermarkets will open at opposite ends of the neighborhood — Brooklyn Fare at the intersection of Hoyt and Schermerhorn streets, and Concord Market at Jay and Tillary streets — but are being hailed with the same basic reaction.
“This is what we’ve been waiting for!” said Arlene Jennings, who lives on State Street several blocks from Brooklyn Fare. “This is the first opportunity there has been to get groceries on the walk home from the subway.”
Fare will open early next year and offer prepared foods, a coffee bar, lunch and breakfast options for nearby office workers, a deli, as well as typical groceries and other household items, explained spokeswoman Roberta Ronsivalle.
“We felt that there is an opportunity for creating something unique — an opportunity for a more gourmet grocery food concept,” Ronsivalle said. “Brooklyn Fare is definitely something that we believe is missing in Downtown Brooklyn.”
Cheeky advertisements clearly designed to get the attention of the increasingly upscale neighborhood’s new residents went up in the store’s windows last week, announcing an expansive cheese bar that will “stink,” and boasting, “Our kitchen is bigger than yours.”
Meanwhile, the Concord Village residential complex will finally get a replacement for the Associated Supermarket that shuttered in July.
“We understood clearly what kind of market we needed there, and a demand for a higher quality,” said Concord Village Board President Claudia Corwin.
For Erica Rosario — who is a student at City Tech on Jay Street near the Associated and who lives on Pacific Street near Brooklyn Fare — the two new grocers couldn’t be more convenient.
“[It’s] good for the community,” said Rosario, 20.
Adding to the good culinary news is this tasty bite: A renovated Gristedes supermarket is expected to reopen later this year at 79 Henry St., near Clark Street, after a fire destroyed the store last spring. And Trader Joe’s recently opened its first Brooklyn store on the very edge of Downtown, at the corner of Court Street and Atlantic Avenue.
Such developments are definitely counter to the trend in the city, which has lost a third of its supermarkets in just six years, an industry report revealed earlier this year.
But Downtown’s grocery growth is as much about numbers than about food: By 2012, the neighborhood is expected to add 20,000 residents, according to the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.
— with Zeke Faux
