About a month ago, the city's newest Bottom Dollar location opened on Grays Ferry Avenue. At the time, we remarked that we were a little surprised about just how quickly the new market was built. Though the developer is different, history now seems to be repeating itself on Girard Avenue.
You may remember, we originally told you about the 9th Street Marketplace on the 900 block of Girard Avenue back in October. Back then, groundbreaking had just taken place for a shopping center at a parcel that was a vacant lot for years. With Bottom Dollar and Dollar General already signed up, we made the crack that all of the center's tenants needed to have "dollar" in their name. Though only five months have passed, there's been a crazy amount of progress at the site.
We're guessing that the Bottom Dollar will be located at the northern end of the shopping center, and Dollar General will take one of the other spaces. That means that there's room for another store or two in this development. Has anybody heard anything about other tenants for this site?
When the stores open here in the coming months, they will represent an oasis in what has been a food desert for decades. The stores will create jobs, increase access to reasonably priced fresh foods, and clearly improve the quality of life for people in the neighborhood. All this should come to pass in just a few more months. And it's great to see.