Students fight plan to build grocery store
Critics say plan would compromise safety of those at nearby Capital Prep
HARTFORD – A well-intentioned plan to open a grocery store between downtown Hartford and the city’s northern neighborhoods has ignited controversy at a nearby school that stands to lose a field it uses for recess and sports practices.
Students and teachers at Capital Preparatory Magnet School on Main Street have lined up against building a full-service supermarket on the grassy field that runs behind the school, a move they say would compromise the safety of students.
“We understand there is a food desert, yes we do, but a supermarket in our backyard?” Reanna O’Bryan, 16, of East Hartford, a junior at the school, said. “What about the safety of our children, and the impact that it is going to have on the school and our kids?”
Megan Butler, who teaches fifth- and sixth-grade math, said teachers are confounded by the plan that would take away outdoor recess options for younger grades and a practice field for high school football.
“To add a public space in our backyard, it terrifies me that anyone could walk in and out of space where children are, just knowing the world today,” Butler said. “Terrify is a strong word, but for me, it’s a scary thought.”
The dispute shows how a wellmeaning plan to solve an arduous problem in Hartford — bringing fresh food to residents and encouraging a healthy lifestyle — can cause a rippling of unintended consequences.
The latest proposal for a grocery store in the area follows a string of unsuccessful attempts,
and is still in the early stages. No detailed designs have been drawn up. But discussions are ongoing with potential operators and $8.5 million in state financing has been earmarked for the $23 million supermarket.
The city-owned site runs behind Capital Prep, which serves preschool through high school, and the park that surrounds the Keney Memorial Clock Tower. It is one of two locations in the neighborhood under consideration. The other is just south in the Downtown North development, across from Dunkin’ Donuts Park.
The school — and the community — were caught off guard when a rendering of a possible grocery store complex near Capital Prep surfaced in September. A task force of city residents had begun discussing the project, but no location was settled on.
The rendering — needed to secure bond funding in the waning days of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration — sparked a strong reaction at the school and among some city leaders.
rJo Winch, a city councilwoman, said she intends to introduce a measure that would eliminate the clock tower site as an option, after a flurry of calls from upset school officials and residents.
“It needs to be ruled out all together, because why would you put any establishment of any kind behind a school?” Winch said. “How are you going to protect the children’s safety?”
The city’s school district has not taken a position on the issue. But school officials are reviewing student concerns and analyzing how the project would affect Capital Prep.
“I know that even the student voice has lifted the fact that, yes, we acknowledge the food desert,” Superintendent of Schools Leslie Torres-Rodriguez said. “But we also acknowledge that there could be a potential impact on the school — their experience, the operation, and so there is an opportunity for a collective to come to the table and try to understand what the impact is.”
The Hartford Community Loan Fund, which is leading the push for the supermarket, is now hoping for a fresh start with Capital Prep. The private, not-forprofit organization that focuses on neighborhood revitalization apologized for not bringing the school into discussions earlier.
The opposition now presents a thorny problem for the loan fund. The group envisions the supermarket anchoring what it calls the “Healthy Hartford Hub.”
“So, it would be kind of disingenuous of us to eliminate recreation space at the school with this project,” Rex Fowler, the loan fund’s chief executive, said. “That is something we are trying to figure out — how to make sure there would still be recreation space for the students.”
A supermarket of up to 45,000 square feet and structured parking would be the first phase of development. Additional construction could take place across nearby Ely Street if vacant land there is acquired. Those plans call for services that promote health: a clinic, a pharmacy, a wellness studio and a community kitchen. Housing could be included on a second floor.
All told, the project could cost $36 million.
The acre-and-a-half site is attractive because the services could be grouped close together.
Since the rendering appeared, Fowler said he has met with the Hartford superintendent, the principal of Capital Prep, students and community members. One meeting lasted nearly four hours.
Subsequent conversations also raised fears about noise during construction and the logistics of parking school buses. One solution could involve building on just two-thirds of the field, limiting construction to just behind the clock tower, Fowler said.
For the site to have a chance, the school’s support is crucial, he added.
“I want them to want this project next door,” Fowler said. “I don’t want them to just kind of suck it up and live next door to this thing they hate. I want them to see the value of this to the school. Because Capital Prep is a social justice-focused school and they’ve got a strong history of athletics, they are the perfect partners.”
For a decade, the city had wrestled with opening a second full-service grocery store to go along with a Stop and Shop on New Park Avenue near the West Hartford Line. The loan fund first got involved in 2012, when the upscale Market at Hartford 21 on Asylum Street closed after just six months — its prices and overhead too high.
By 2014, the loan fund had secured a developer and an operator, ShopRite, for a mixed-use project that would prominently include a supermarket, with a similar focus to what is now proposed. The development was to be located on land just south of Dunkin’ Donuts Park. But the deal collapsed when the operator said the store would not be compatible with the ballpark.
The effort was resurrected in 2017 at the urging of Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin.
Statistics show another fullservice grocery store and the larger hub could fill a critical need. In Hartford, one in four residents live in a “food desert,” an urban area where it is difficult to buy fresh food. Hartford also ranked eighth-worst in the nation among same-sized cities for providing low-income residents access to healthy foods.
There also is a dramatic contrast with suburban towns. In West Hartford, for example, there are eight full-service grocery stores, and in Hartford, there is one. Residents of the city’s northern neighborhoods most often shop in Bloomfield, which can take an hour by bus.
Martha Page, the executive director of Hartford Food System, is leading the resident task force and said determining the right location requires further study.
Page said she likes both the Downtown North and the clock tower sites, but she is open to other locations that serve the North End and Hartford’s central business district.
A court battle between the city and the former Downtown North developer could delay any future projects near the ballpark.
“So what options should be looked at, and does that argue in favor of the clock tower location?” Page said. “This is hard to figure out. You need to serve the neighborhoods, but we cannot afford another failed grocery store.”