City of Phoenix votes to provide financial support in building of downtown Fry’s
Oct 5, 2016, 8:36 PM | Updated: Oct 6, 2016, 11:21 am
(Yelp Photo)
The city of Phoenix has voted in favor 7-2 to move forward in the building of a Fry’s grocery store in the downtown area. The two who voted against it were Councilmen Jim Waring and Sal DiCiccio, who were concerned about property-tax breaks.
“This is a site right in the heart of our city,” Stanton said following the vote approval. “An empty lot that is currently generating no economic activity for the City of Phoenix. Once the project is completed, it’s going to generate a significant amount of economic activity.”
Phoenix will provide about $18.3 million toward the project.
Talks of developing a downtown Fry’s location has been ongoing since April, behind plenty of support by Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton.
Councilmen Daniel Valenzuela was also incredibly excited about the new Fry’s location, and said it was a win for everyone.
“This is how we move our economy forward, our city forward, our community forward,” Valenzuela expressed. “We have a food desert in the area, this is obviously going to help solve that.”
The city went on to explain that it’ll bring in about $254 million over the next 10 years in an economic impact, and about 1,300 new jobs.
The construction of the supermarket is expected to be completed in 2018.
KTAR’s Corbin Carson and Ashley Flood contributed to this report.