🔒Downtown grocery stores in Connecticut cities remain elusive

Developer Randy Salvatore is building thousands of apartments in Hartford and Stamford, but so far those projects haven’t drawn what some see as a critical amenity — a grocery store. Even as residents flock to the newly developed multifamily units, Salvatore said his efforts to court grocers in both cities have largely come up short. He hasn’t given up entirely, but he questions whether downtown supermarkets are as essential as civic leaders often suggest. “We spoke to all sorts of different grocers, and they went to their demographics and they all said it’s not necessary,” Salvatore said. “That’s because everyone living in those apartments, they can get everything delivered to their place.” For city leaders working to revive their urban cores, securing a full-service grocery store has long been a priority. But landing one has proven difficult. New Haven, too, has struggled to maintain a full-service downtown grocer.

Hartford pushes incentives

Hartford has made attracting a supermarket to its downtown and North End a priority, and is willing to offer tax breaks and subsidies to potential operators. The city has offered an $8.5 million grant to spur a grocery project in the North End, drawing three proposals before an Aug. 15 deadline. Officials have not yet reviewed the submissions or disclosed details. The target area for a North End grocery extends to city-owned parking lots near Dunkin’ Park, which Salvatore is redeveloping into apartments. Salvatore pitched a 10,000- to 40,000-square-foot grocery for one of the lots, backed by city incentives, but has found no takers. “We tried to make it attractive,” Salvatore said. “Evidently, what the grocers’ studies were showing was that it’s just something that’s not feasible.” Downtown Hartford does have a handful of smaller markets — like The Greenway Market and New York Deli & Market — but they have limited selections and don’t offer close to the same services as a full-service supermarket. In the nearby Frog Hollow neighborhood, a nonprofit grocery store — The Grocery on Broad — opened on Broad Street last year. Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam says he still sees both the need and potential for grocery stores in the city’s North End and downtown. “It’s important to have grocery stores in communities in which people live. It’s a vital sign of health for the community,” Arulampalam said. Hartford has added about 3,300 apartments downtown over the past 13 years, moving toward a goal of 5,000. The units have been well received, with landlords reporting that new buildings lease quickly and remain nearly full. “We’ve had a number of really promising conversations about potentially bringing a supermarket into our downtown,” Arulampalam said. “It’s a good time to invest, because we are growing … and the ways in which people get their food tends to become habit.” With roughly 15,000 residents, Stamford’s downtown is further along as a residential hub than Hartford’s. Even so, Salvatore, who has built hundreds of apartments there with more on the way, said attracting a grocery store to Stamford has also been difficult. “I don’t think this is a unique situation to Hartford,” Salvatore said. “I think it’s just the nature of downtown areas today and how fast things evolved, the needs of the tenant base and how they procure all their supplies.” New Haven has grocery stores serving downtown residents, but keeping one in the city center has been difficult.

Developer Bruce Becker, who built the 32-story 360 State St. apartment tower in 2010, said it was important to include a grocer on the first floor. But even with 500 apartments above, none signed on. So in 2011, he launched a cooperative grocery, the Elm City Market. After financial struggles, however, Elm City Market was auctioned to new owners in 2014. In late 2024, it left 360 State St., and reopened earlier this year in a smaller site on South Orange Street. The store closed within weeks of its grand reopening. “I spent as much effort bringing a grocery store to 360 State Street as I did building that whole project,” Becker said. In Hartford, Becker in 2017 converted the 26-story 777 Main St. office building into 285 apartments and retail. A CVS once filled a 12,000-square-foot ground-floor space, but closed earlier this year, though it continues to pay rent. Brokers now eye the site as a potential grocery store location. For now, Becker said his tenants get by with delivery. “But that does not foster the sense of vitality in the downtown area you would normally want in a city,” Becker said. “I’ve always felt having a downtown grocery store is essential to both (New Haven and Hartford) reaching their potential as vibrant, livable places to live and work.”

Why grocers hesitate

Tim McNamara, a senior director at Cushman & Wakefield who specializes in retail and grocery leasing, said downtown Hartford likely lacks the population density to sustain a supermarket.

“In order to survive and thrive, you need to look for customers from more than one town,” McNamara said. “It’s true in downtown Hartford you have a growing population, but not enough to justify a grocery on its own.” McNamara said cities often have more success drawing grocery stores to areas outside their downtowns, where operators can secure large parking lots and easy access to highways or major roads that reach broader customer bases. He pointed to the Market at Hartford 21 — an earlier attempt at a downtown grocery — which shut down in 2011 after only six months in business. Its space, on the ground floor of the Hartford 21 apartment tower on Asylum Street, remains vacant.

Wayne Pesce, president of the Connecticut Food Association, acknowledged the higher costs and challenges of a downtown grocer, but said success stories exist. “In each case, success came from creative real estate solutions, strong partnerships with local government and tailoring the store format to the urban customer,” Pesce said, citing examples in Yonkers and Boston. Pesce said Hartford’s rapid downtown residential growth could help make the city more attractive to a grocer. “That momentum could help turn what has been a decades-long challenge into a viable opportunity, benefitting both a savvy food retailer and the residents of Hartford,” he said.

Kevin Kenny, president of Hartford-based brokerage firm NAI Lexington Commercial, said he is in talks with grocery operators interested in multiple spots in Hartford, including downtown. He noted that standard demographic studies often underestimate the spending power of downtown apartment residents and office workers. One well-established grocery store operator, Kenny said, is actively discussing a location in a planned redevelopment of a vacant, eight-story office building at the corner of Talcott and Main streets. Lexington Partners, a development firm affiliated with NAI Lexington, is partnered with LAZ Investments, Hartford officials and the state Department of Transportation in a plan to demolish the “Talcott Plaza” building and replace it with a central rail hub, 43,000 square feet of retail space and up to 400 apartments. State officials funded a $250,000 planning study for the project early this year. “We have a big, brand-name grocer meeting regularly with us about that project who is really excited about being attached to a mixed-use development,” Kenny said. “At the time something is completed, which is a couple years out, they can see Hartford as being the spot where that could really be profitable.”