West Charlotte grocery desert moves closer to getting a store. What comes next?
The West Boulevard Coalition moved another step closer to opening Charlotte’s first cooperative grocery store in an area that’s been without a traditional supermarket for over 30 years.
Charlotte City Council approved this week the coalition’s rezoning petition for 3.5 acres at Clanton Road and West Boulevard to build Three Sisters Market. The full-service grocery store is expected to break ground late next year and open in 2025.
“Our intention is for this to be competitive in the market with any full-service grocery store,” coalition board member Guy Cousins recently told The Charlotte Observer, “where anybody will want to come and shop.”
The rezoning follows last month’s hiring of Janiqua Jackson as general manager for the market.
The coalition has secured $5.2 million to build the market with a mix of public and private gifts, including congressional, county and city funding. The total cost of the project is expected to be about $10 million.
Co-op market fills a community need
The predominantly Black community has been without a grocery store for several decades despite steep competition with more stores opening, including Sprouts in Steele Creek and expansions by Publix, Lowes Foods and Lidl.
After years of failed discussions with grocery chains, West Charlotte residents took matters into their own hands. Their solution is the co-op market. The West Boulevard Coalition serves 19 neighborhoods with about 19,000 residents.
“This is a hard lift where grocery store margins are very slim,” Jackson said. “We need a lot of support.”
The coalition’s Seeds for Change community garden and farmer’s market project will remain on site.
What’s next for the West Charlotte co-op?
The coalition’s next steps are to complete the design and begin fundraising.
The coalition is in the process of designing the market, West Boulevard Coalition Executive Director Sharika Comfort recently told the Observer. The design will maximize interior space, too, and everything will be intentional down to the number of parking spaces and what’s stocked on the shelves.
Partnering with the coalition are Charlotte architecture firm Neighboring Concepts, landscape architect company LandDesign Inc. and Seven Roots, a co-op grocery consulting firm.
The timeline for starting work on building the grocery store is dependent upon receiving the money committed from public and private funding, Comfort said. Those commitments include $3 million from Mecklenburg County and $1.5 million from the city of Charlotte.
Two fundraising campaigns will begin in the first quarter of next year: capital project and member-owner.
“The member-owner campaign is an opportunity for residents to own shares in the market and be able to vote on decisions with regards to the market,” Sharika said. “That allows the community to maintain ownership and essentially control the market.”
The member-owner price will be a one-time $100 and each household gets one vote on decisions impacting the co-op, Cousins said.
“The dream we’re selling is community inclusiveness,” Cousins said.
More about Three Sisters Market’s new GM
Jackson has over 20 years in grocery retail experience, including launching cooperative stores and operations manager at the Durham Co-op Market.
“This job is rewarding for serving underserved communities,” she recently told the Observer. “It feels good to serve people who look like me.”
Community surveys will help decide not only what the market will look like but what it will stock, Jackson said.
”We’re not making decisions for the community, we’re making decisions in collaboration with the community,” Cousins said. “That’s the only way we’re going to get the support that we need for this to be viable and long-lasting.”
The store will hire up to 75 full- and part-time employees, Jackson said.
