Officials search for grocery store to replace Ahart’s Market
Area known as a ‘food desert’
Bethlehem officials are actively working to find a replacement for Ahart’s Market in south Bethlehem, an area already known as a “food desert” which will become even more starved for fresh fruit and vegetables should the community grocery store close its doors at the end of next month.
A resolution was introduced during Tuesday’s City Council meeting urging city administrators to investigate incentives that would keep a grocery
store operating at Ahart’s 410 Montclair Ave. location. The resolution, sponsored by Councilman William Reynolds and Councilwoman Olga Negron, comes about a week after the store announced it will close its doors by April 30.
Mayor Robert Donchez said city officials have been investigating feasible incentives for continuing operation of a grocery store there since the closure was announced.
Ahart’s has been providing groceries to residents of Bethlehem’s South Side and surrounding communities for the past 20 years, Donchez said Tuesday night, noting his mother used to shop at the market weekly for 30 years, before it became Ahart’s.
“I support council’s resolution and we are already investigating all options for incentivizing a new grocery store at this location. We are prepared to work with the right tenant to offer all the tools in the toolbox,” Donchez said.
He announced Tuesday that the city has arranged for the Kellyn Foundation to increase healthy food access in Bethlehem. With financial assistance from the city’s Community Development Block Grant COVID funds, the Kellyn Foundation will be adding another day or two to its current “Eat Real Food” Mobile Market, which already makes a stop in the South Side.
The market provides locally farmed fresh fruits and vegetables. The additional time will be added starting May 1.
Since Ahart’s announced its closing, city officials have also connected with the property owner and put them in contact with potential grocery tenants, Donchez said. His administration is also working with LANTA to identify South
Side bus routes that residents can use to access other grocers around the city.
They are also working with the Community Action Development Corporation of Bethlehem and the SouthSide Arts District to map out existing fresh food options and publicize them to residents, Donchez said.
Fountain Hill Councilman Will Rufe was among those who called into the meeting Tuesday night urging city officials to ensure a grocery store remains at the location.
Rufe said Ahart’s is the closest grocery store for Fountain Hill residents, and the only walkable store for the vast majority of residents. C-Town is the next closest grocery store on East Third Street, but it’s too far for those who do not drive, Rufe said.
C-Town is more than half a mile from Ahart’s.
“It’s absolutely crucial for our families and community to have access to a market. It’s their given right to have access to healthy and fresh food. I want to support the work you are all doing and lend my support to maintaining a supermarket on that side of town, said resident Carolina Hernandez who also Assistant Dean & Director of the Community Service Office at Lehigh University.
Residents Anna Smith and Veronica Moore started a petition that’s being circulated by the CADCB urging city officials to ensure a grocery store remains at the Montclair Avenue location. As of Tuesday evening, Smith said the petition had more than 500 signatures.
“This supermarket is an essential institution on the South Side and provides access to food for 25% of the South Side population that would not otherwise have walkable access to a supermarket,” says letter circulated with the petition.
When a Food Lane at the same location closed in 2001, then-mayor Don Cunningham, now the president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation, used every incentive available to attract a new supermarket to the location, the letter says.
Ahart’s is closing April 30 because of slower sales caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Fewer students have been shopping at the store as Lehigh University switched to remote learning during the pandemic, which also affected sales, a manager at Ahart’s told The Morning Call last week.
Ahart’s also has locations in Bath, Allentown and Blakeslee. Those locations will remain open.
Ahart’s opened in 2001 at the longtime site of a former Food Lane grocery store, part of the now-defunct Laneco supermarket chain, according to The Morning Call archives.
George Ahart, a Northampton County grocer, around the same time also reopened two other former Laneco supermarkets as Great Valu stores — one that continues to operate at 14th and Allen streets in Allentown and another that closed in 2017 on Route 22 in Phillipsburg.
According to Northampton County property records, the property at 410 Montclair Ave. is now under the care of Valenti Mid-Atlantic Realty LLC.
The addition of these Great Valu stores more than doubled the size of Ahart’s supermarket operation, which at the time employed about 130 at stores in Bath and Blakeslee in Monroe County.
Founded in 1998, Great Valu is a consortium of about 24 independent markets in six Mid-Atlantic states, according to its website.