BALTIMORE — When the only grocery store in town closed earlier this year, Edmondson Village became a food desert.
"It was devastating," resident David Hill told WMAR-2 News on Friday.
So people were happy to learn that another supermarket, a DMV chain called LA Mart, would take its place.
But the good news didn't stop there.
It was announced Friday afternoon that Aldi would also be claiming a vacant spot in the Edmondson Village Shopping Center. Construction is expected to start before the end of the year.
"It's gonna be great. Everything will be right there," resident Richard Jones said.
"I think it's a great opportunity for the community to have somewhere to shop to find healthy food choices with a reasonable price, and not to have scour 10 miles down the road to another area," Hill said.
That was something city representatives heard over and over again in community meetings as plans to revitalize this shopping center took shape. It was purchased by a commercial company called Chicago Trend in August of last year. The city, state, and hundreds of community investors put money into the project as well.
"It's not done. This whole lot is going to be developed, Councilman Kristerfer Burnett, who represents Edmondson Village, told WMAR-2 News. "There's gonna be a project in the rear as well that will be announced soon. The hope is that this whole thing in the next 2-3 years is just a vibrant space that restores what the shopping center used to be."
Councilman Kristerfer Burnett is passing the baton to Councilman-elect Paris Gray, who previously served as Burnett's community outreach coordinator. The pair has been working on the Aldi deal together for months and made the announcement about it opening together on Instagram.
"Social media is going crazy right now," Councilmember-elect Paris Gray said. "People are really excited, and they're hopeful. It's not just a representation of a new shopping center. It presents the chance for people to just come back home. There was a person who joked that if they opened up Tommy Tucker again, they would consider moving back to Baltimore City. And that's the goal. You want people to be proud of where they were born, where they were raised, and come back home."
"With the two fires that we had, that was a real down time for us as residents," Burnett added. "I mean, Paris and I live in this community. We will be walking to the Aldi and LA Mart. So it’s exciting that in some of the darkest moments, that out of that, we’ll have brighter days ahead.
The LA Mart is slated to open in February 2025.
