Price Rite, Jubilee Homes break ground on upcoming South Avenue store

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Grocery store Price Rite plans to open a store at 611 South Ave. in Syracuse, expanding on a property that Jubilee Homes of Syracuse, Inc. has owned since 2009.

The family-operated Commercial & Residential Painting, Inc. currently occupies the existing structure on the South Avenue property. It plans to move into the former Charette Brothers building at 1426 Valley Dr. by the end of July, Melissa Coyne, company manager, said in an email response to a BJNN inquiry.

The building was once home to a Loblaws location that closed in 1970, according to Neil Duffy, president of Price Rite, who spoke with BJNN before the event started.

Price Rite, Jubilee Homes of Syracuse, Inc., state, county, and city officials broke ground on the site during a ceremony Friday afternoon.

The new store will be known as Price Rite of Southwest Syracuse, according to a news release issued at the Friday event.

Price Rite already operates a Syracuse location at 1625 Erie Boulevard East.

The grocery store has been working with the nonprofit Jubilee Homes to bring a store to an area that’s designated as a “food desert.”

Food deserts are areas that “lack access to affordable fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk, and other foods that make up a full and healthy diet,” according to the definition listed at the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

VIP Structures will handle the construction and design work on the $5.5 million project, says Duffy.

The project cost includes a $1.4 million grant through the Central New York regional economic-development council, Richard Tobe, New York’s director of Upstate development, said in his remarks at the groundbreaking ceremony.

Price Rite expects the store will employ between 100 and 125 full and part-time workers once it opens in November, says Duffy. That’s part of the company’s fiscal first quarter.

The store will feature “some of the industry’s leading ‘green technologies,’ including glass doors on dairy cases and energy-efficient lighting and refrigeration, according to the release.

Price Rite says it has “different approaches to help keep costs down and pass along those savings to customers.” They include less spending on advertising and store décor than “conventional” stores and encouraging customers to bring their own bags or buy a reusable bag for 10 cents.

Price Rite operates 62 stores in a footprint that includes New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Virginia.

The company currently operates 12 stores in New York, says Duffy.

The store says it offers customers an expanded produce department and food products “at savings up to 50 percent less than traditional supermarkets.”

Keasbey, New Jersey–based Wakefern Food Corp. is the parent company of Price Rite.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com