By Corina Vanek | azcentral (abridged)
A shuttered Food City along the light rail line in Tempe has been demolished to make way for a mixed-use development that will include a new grocery store and affordable housing.
The site, on Apache Boulevard and Dorsey Lane, will be developed into a 400-unit apartment complex, with 90% of the units designated as affordable housing. The units will be available to people earning between 30% and 80% of the area median income, meaning a two-person household earning between $27,000 and $71,950 could rent there, according to data from Tempe. Housing is generally considered affordable if a family spends one-third or less of its monthly income on it.
The Food City grocery store closed in 2021, and a few months later Tempe bought the roughly eight-acre site for $10.6 million, according to real estate database Vizzda. Tempe Mayor Corey Woods said the city was motivated to buy the site after hearing resident concerns about the closure of the grocery store.
“Overnight it became a food desert,” (Mayor Woods) said, adding that residents were also concerned that the site could be bought by a private developer that could build luxury housing or something else that would not benefit the community.
Tempe solicited proposals from developers for a project that included affordable housing and a grocery store to replace the Food City. Tempe picked Dorsey Development Partners and Palindrome to redevelop the site, now called Dorsey Station. Dorsey Development Partners is led by Charles Huellmantel and Todd Marshall.
The developers are required to build a new grocery store as part of the project, which will be a minimum of 10,000 square feet. Woods said the development team is willing to build a larger store if the selected grocer requires a larger footprint. So far, no grocery operator has been announced for the site.
Woods said the store will be a brand offering food at a price point that is affordable to a wide range of residents.
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