TOPS in The Valley?

Since TOPS Friendly Markets took over the long-troubled P&C grocery store chain, they’ve made improvements to many of their stores. Most recently, there was a $2.5 million, major renovation to the Nottingham Plaza TOPS, a few miles from the SU Campus.  The store has a SU Athletics theme, including logos, photos of Orange stars, and a ‘Cuse Cafe. This type of investment in (and for) the community is what everyone hoped would happen when TOPS, based in Williamsville NY, purchased P&C.

Mayor Stephanie Miner and community members have been championing a grocery store on the South Side for some time. And now, we’re hearing a lot of talk that TOPS is interested in the empty P&C store in Valley Plaza, a once thriving retail center on South Salina Street.  The store’s been empty for several years; P&C closed it before they went out of business, leaving Green Hills (a couple miles down the road) and convenience stores as the only local grocery options for neighborhood residents. 

Valley Plaza is owned by Ellicott Development Co., the company founded by Buffalo businessman and gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino. The developer has filed for tax breaks on the site and for a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement with the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency.  For its part, TOPS has filed for assistance from the New York Healthy Food and Communities Fund, which provides grants and loans to support getting grocery stores in under-served markets.

While I’m encouraged by the amount of activity surrounding the TOPS store, and would likely do at least some of our shopping there, I’m a little concerned that the City of Syracuse is approaching economic development the same way now, in very difficult economic times, as we’ve always approached it.  The PILOT agreement is the ‘go-to’ enticement for all kinds of development, from shopping mall expansions to mixed-use downtown developments to well, pretty much everyone who promises us anything.

What I’d rather see is tax dollars not waived, or loans and grants not given, unless and until developers meet our expectations.  In this case, that would mean Ellicott and TOPS getting the store remodeled, stocked, opened and operating for a year or two, before we give them any kind of incentive. Or, if everyone on both sides insists that up-front economic support is required, we should obtain iron-clad assurances that we’ll be paid back two- or three-fold if they don’t uphold their end of the bargain. 

I’m in favor of having a grocery store in the ‘hood; and who knows, maybe Valley Plaza is one of those diamonds in the rough, the thing right under our nose that with a little attention could turn into exactly what we needed to turn things around in a neighborhood that needs a break.  I’m just not in favor of spending limited economic development dollars on a promise.  After all, we’ve got a Paladino promise in Eastwood that I think everyone wishes we didn’t have — and we can’t afford another one. 

If TOPS needs incentives to come here, so be it – but maybe there’s someone out there who doesn’t, or who would accept a ‘new deal’ economic development plan.  SIDA, the city, and the community deserve to know the answer to that question before we commit to TOPS and Ellicott.