A New York City business coalition representing immigrant-owned shops voted this week to sue the city over Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s taxpayer-funded grocery stores, alleging the plan will crush nearby competitors, according to a report.
The Multicultural Business Coalition’s board approved the lawsuit as the far-left mayor rolled out fresh details of the $70 million project, the New York Post reported. The group plans to file in the coming weeks to block five city-run supermarkets that would sell produce, meat, milk, cheese, and bread at a 30 percent discount.
MBC chairman Frank Garcia said the mayor has refused to meet with the coalition.
“The mayor doesn’t seem to want to sit down with us,” Garcia told the outlet, adding that Mamdani “won’t be able to bully these lawyers we are going to bring in.”
The coalition was formed earlier this year to fight the grocery policy. It includes 50 chambers of commerce representing Asian, African, Caribbean, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, and Jewish-owned businesses. Garcia said the nonprofit plans to raise $1 million to challenge the mayor’s initiatives and called the suit a “non-partisan initiative.” The group intends to send a letter notifying Mamdani’s office of the legal action.
Store owners near the planned East Harlem location, in the space known as La Marqueta, have raised alarm. Five bodegas sit within a few blocks of the site. The city stores will pay no rent because they will be built on municipal property, according to the mayor’s office.
Radhames Rodriguez, president of the United Bodegas of America, said the discount would gut his members.
“Having items that sell for 30% less than our prices, means nobody will go to our stores,” Rodriguez told the Post.
Mamdani said the city-run stores will not carry hot food or staples like alcohol, cigarettes, and lottery tickets, and argued the shops pose no threat to existing businesses.
“We are not looking to compete with bodegas or grocery stores when it comes to their ability to survive,” Mamdani said at a Monday press conference.
The planned lawsuit comes as Mamdani pushes to open one store in each borough by 2029, starting with the Bronx. Nearly four dozen grocery stores already operate within a 35-minute walk of the La Marqueta site, which Mamdani has said will cost $30 million and take three years to build.
