Maryland's Market Fresh Gourmet says it will anchor Sycamore Grove. City says, 'Not so fast.'
PETERSBURG – Perhaps it was fitting that Sunday’s casino town hall meeting took place six days after a solar eclipse shaded the city of Petersburg because something said toward the end of that meeting may have eclipsed the city's hope to announce the name of the long-awaited downtown grocery store.
The founder and chief executive officer of Maryland-based Market Fresh Gourmet said his company has been chosen as the “preferred anchor grocer” of the Sycamore Grove mixed-use development planned for the former Southside Regional Medical Center site. Mario Minor said he had been working with Bruce Smith Enterprises and The Cordish Companies – one of the five vendors in town to present plans for casino development – on the plans for the grocery store.
The announcement caught Petersburg officials off guard because Sycamore Grove is a project of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s “Partnership for Petersburg” initiative to improve the city across the board, including food insecurity. Both the governor and the city had been promising a major supermarket brand for that site, and Minor’s proclamation left many local officials scrambling Sunday afternoon to dispute it.
City Manager March Altman and city media spokesperson Joanne Williams insisted that no such decision had been made about who would anchor Sycamore Grove. Williams directed inquiries to Smith and Cordish about it, adding that they might have some plans for a grocer outside the Sycamore Grove scope.
Smith told The Progress-Index he could “neither confirm nor deny” that Market Fresh Gourmet is the Sycamore Grove anchor. Later, a spokesperson for the groups sent this message to The Progress-Index: “Even if Market Fresh isn’t selected as the vendor for that particular opportunity, we are still committed to working with them to bring a grocery store to downtown.”
The Progress-Index reached out late Sunday to a spokesperson for Youngkin seeking comment.
On its website, Market Fresh Gourmet refers to itself as a “gourmet grocer with restaurant quality food at affordable prices.” Its offerings include organic food, wild-caught seafood, organic and grass-fed beef, prepared meals, and domestic and international cheeses.
Minor, who told the crowd he survived two heart attacks sparked in part by poor eating decisions, said he wanted to offer that same opportunity to minority families everywhere, including in low- and moderate-income communities.
“We have done a lot of work here,” he said. “We have had meetings with the governor’s office. We have had meetings with Mr. Altman as well.”