NEWS - Economic Development

SBJ Staff

After more than a decade of planning, the westside of the Historic District will finally get its own full-scale grocery store. On Thursday, July 22, construction began on a 26,358 square-foot Food Lion at the corner of Gwinnett Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The grocery store is part of a larger development project known as Carver Commons, a 5.64-acre joint project by Food Lion, Carver State Bank and St. Phillip A.M.E. Church.

Carver Commons is set to open in the spring of 2011, with the Food Lion and a new Carver State Bank, owned by Robert James, to replace the current bank at 701 Martin Luther King Jr.Blvd., which will be demolished.

Carver State Bank has been a prominent fixture along the Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. corridor for 35 years, while a grocery story has been a long-time void along the corridor.

In 1998, the Savannah Development and Renewal Authority (SDRA) expanded its focus to the Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Montgomery St. corridors, and officially identified the need for a full-scale grocer to serve the neighborhood west of the Interstate 16 flyover. The neighborhood is mostly made up of residents of the 236-unit Kayton and 250-unit Frazier Public Housing facilities (both on West Gwinnett St.), as well as Savannah College of Art and Design students.

According to SDRA, 50 percent of these residents are renters, and 27 percent rely on public transportation. That means a large percentage of the residents, without a full-time grocer y nearby, have stayed fed mainly through the area’s vast array of convenience stores and fast food restaurants.

Robert James II, the son of Robert James, and who has been instrumental in the development of Carver Commons, said the area’s lack of access to a grocery store leaves residents in a sort of black hole in regards to their physical and economic health.

“It’s a pretty, typical urban food desert – an underserved, urban community with easy access to fast food. Its very difficult to do things that are most helpful for you on a low-income; you see a lot of heart disease and obesity, lack of access to healthy food choices, and you see that in that neighborhood,” James said.
“Also economically, you’re buying a gallon of milk at two or three times higher than usual price on a fixed or low-income; that’s a real economic hardship,” he continued.

The Food Lion may be economically beneficial in more ways than just cheaper groceries Lisa Sundrla, executive director of the SDRA, said. In the James’ agreement with Food Lion, the grocer must be a community grocery store meaning potential employment opportunities for residents. Additionally, all the subcontractors for the construction of the Food Lion will be local. Food Lion brings in its own construction team.

While Food Lion was first and foremost a need that had to be met, some including James and Sundrla are expecting the Food Lion to be a catalyst for growth along the MLK and Montgomery corridors.

“It was slow to happen, but I think we are on the brink of a really good thing,” Sundrla said, “People forget how long it took to revitalize Broughton Street,” she added.

When the SDRA was created by the City of Savannah in 1992, its main focus was on the revitalization effort on Broughton St. In 1986, the appraised value of Broughton St. was at $36 million. Twenty years later, with a Gap, Starbucks, and the historic Marshall House hotel, the value of commercial property is now estimated at $160 million.

Broughton St. is still a long ways away from say, Charleston’s King Street, in the opinion of many locals, and Sundrla says the SDRA hasn’t forgotten the street, pointing to ad campaigns and other marketing aimed at encouraging locals to shop downtown

Sundrla said it’s just that right now, plans from as far back as 1998 are finally falling into place for Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Montgomery streets.

“Plans are finally being realized, finally at implementation phase,” she said, adding that they had just gotten word that the next phase of the MLK Streetscape project will begin the first of October, for example. The phase will focus on cleaning up MLK Jr. Blvd. between Exchange St. and Victory Dr. at a cost of $3.6 million. But the MLK Streetscape is far from complete; the SDRA still needs $2 million to complete the entire 52-block plan.

“Don’t know where we are going to get it yet. You have a check?” she joked.

Fundraising isn’t the only thing standing in the way of the corridor’s revitalization. The I-16 flyover has long been fingered as the culprit behind the overall West Side’s stagnant economic growth. In 2008, a study conducted by the Georgia Department of Transportation concluded that removing the on and off ramps at Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. would have no negative impact on traffic, aiding this discussion.

Last July, the City of Savannah and Chatham County Commission gave the go-ahead on a one-year, $1 million study into possible removal projects for the Flyover and exit ramps. The public portion of the study began in February, with a three-day charette that more than 200 citizens participated in. More public meetings are anticipated to be held at the end of the summer.