How Close Is Montgomery To Getting A Downtown Grocery Store?
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Downtown Montgomery is in the middle of a facelift. The city wants to turn lower Dexter Avenue into a Market District and bring in new lofts, restaurants and businesses.
But the one thing missing is a grocery store and it’s something that the city is working on.
“We think it’s a key element to downtown as a whole and not just to market district. If more residents are becoming available downtown, having a grocery store available to those residents is key,” said Melanie Golson with the Department of Development.
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And people downtown are excited about the idea. It’s something that Gregory Logan has been looking forward to for a long time.Â
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“I think it’ll be a great thing to have a grocery store downtown because this will be in walking distance for people and residents that are coming to downtown montgomery. They got a lot of new development,” said Logan.
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The city says it’s not as easy as just wanting a store. They city needs 1,500 new residents for a grocery store to come to town. But some people say it’s more than just residents who need it.
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“There are lots of people that are visiting the area. You’ve got the motels that are full with family members where small children have needs,” said Vaughn Collier.
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Golson says that the city is actively recruiting grocery stores for the area. And it’s looking more and more likely because stores are changing where they want to locate. Publix recently announced plans to bring a grocery store to downtown Birmingham
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“Grocery store chains are beginning to see that migration back into an urban downtown type environment so they’re beginning to look a little differently at their critera. Typically they want to know how many residential units there are and that sort of thing,” said Golson.
