Can Atlantic City’s original failed supermarket site be the key to its revival?

ATLANTIC CITY — The pols, naturally, wanted ShopRite. They grabbed shovels. They threw money, lots of it, at the corporation. They drove down from Trenton to break ground. They waited.

They considered the existing Save A Lot and dubiously named Renaissance Plaza on Atlantic Avenue a lost cause, with its history of ballyhooed and failed markets, an abandoned CVS, a problem liquor store that serves as the backdrop for an entrenched group of loiterers, a plasma donation center, and a location that should be the centerpiece of downtown A.C. but is more an emblem of its intractable problems.

Nonetheless, perhaps by default, it is now Renaissance Plaza, owned by a New York real estate investment firm, that the pols and money controllers are looking toward to solve the problem of the lack of a big-name, full-service supermarket in Atlantic City, a city of 38,500 people and a 32% poverty rate. But is it enough? What will it take?

“We’re here,” says Save A Lot manager R.J. Odom, fastidiously checking the growing inventory inside the spotless store the other day. “Whoever doesn’t know, we’re here.”

Outside, a state police detail had arrived.

With all the talk inside Save A Lot about Renaissance Plaza needing more security — the relentless daily crowd of a dozen or more people loitering outside the liquor store throughout the day and into the night, the fights, drug use, drinking, music playing, panhandling — it seemed perhaps a positive development.

But State Trooper Mariano Kieling said the detail was an outreach unit, and they were there not to move the people along, but to feed them. In the back of their pickup truck was a supply of hot food wrapped three Styrofoam containers to a plastic bag, cold sandwiches in baggies.

Inside, Save A Lot’s independent operator Shawn Rinnier reflected on the irony.

Nobody faulted the state police for their outreach detail, but the liquor store crowd outside is part of what makes the Save A Lot a less-than-desirable destination for people wanting to shop for food. In fact, Third Ward Councilman Kaleem Shabazz said he wants the liquor store closed as part of any reinvestment into the Save A Lot. “The liquor store must go,” Shabazz said.

“It’s tough,” said Rinnier, who also owns the Save A Lot in Camden, which successfully expanded and rebranded, and 21 other Save A Lots in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

Rinnier wants to bring the Camden model to Atlantic City, and has already completed a renovation of the store that improved lighting and expanded inventory. “It does get a little rowdy out there at nighttime,” he said. “We’ve had situations where it’s gotten out of hand. You try your best.

“We talk to the landlord a lot,” he said. “The facilities guy. Text messages. ‘Can you help us out?’ It’s a little bit of a deterrent. We have a branding and reputation problem.”

» READ MORE: Supermarkets aren’t the only answer to food insecurity in Camden

Also a deterrent: the struggling surroundings of Atlantic Avenue, where multiple community and policing efforts continue to be aimed at eliminating illegal drug use and sales, loitering, and shuttered businesses, in the proverbial shadow of casinos that draw tens of millions of visitors a year.

A year ago, New York-based Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., which also owns high-end properties like Boston’s Faneuil Hall, announced a $7.5 million refinancing for Renaissance Plaza, a property Ashkenazy COO Joe Press characterized as having done “exceptionally well.” (A description it’s safe to say nobody in Atlantic City would agree with.)

Ashkenazy spokesperson Russ Colchamiro said by phone that Ashkenazy executives did not wish to be quoted on the record or respond to questions about the state of Renaissance Plaza, the challenges in Atlantic City, the future of the liquor store’s lease, security issues, or any efforts to assist the Save A Lot or other businesses. Eric Flocco of Wolf Commercial Real Estate, which is the listing agent for the center’s available retail spaces, did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Shabazz has worked for years to solve problems on Atlantic Avenue, marshaling social service and health agencies, police and other resources. The pandemic didn’t help, he said, but he noted that two new housing developments are in the works that could help fill out a more hopeful landscape: the Atlantic Loft Apartments, a 56-unit renovation of a century-old building at 1 S. New York Ave., and a 32-unit retrofit by Philly developer John Longacre of the Morris Guards Armory at 10 S. New York.

Meanwhile, in a city with multiple corner markets, and smaller grocery stores like the Boom Market in the Chelsea neighborhood, but is classified by the state as a food desert, people are still coming to shop at the Save A Lot, which is open 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.

Rinnier says 5,000 customers a week shop at Save A Lot, a higher count than most of his stores, though the purchase amount is lower. Still, he’s losing money, due to high operational costs including $100,000-plus annual real estate taxes.

For ShopRite operators Village Super Market Inc., the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) proposed building an $18.7 million store on nearby Baltic Avenue, then leasing it for $1 a year.

But ShopRite eventually pulled out of the deal, frustrating politicians from Gov. Phil Murphy on down, left holding their empty shovels.

In September, the CRDA rejected four new supermarket proposals, including one from Rinnier, citing the requested subsidies. Instead, the board voted to give Rinnier a $250,000 grant to help with rent. Virtua Health, meanwhile, used state grants to send 40-foot mobile grocery stores into Atlantic City neighborhoods.

Rinnier is hoping the N.J. Economic Development Authority will fund an expansion of Save A Lot into adjoining vacant space, adding 7,000 square feet to the existing 18,000. The NJEDA’s Food Desert Relief Program has allocated $40 million per year in tax credits, loans, grants, and other assistance state wide.

CRDA spokeswoman Karen Martin said the board “remains committed to expanding access to nutritious, affordable food in Atlantic City.”

Whether Save A Lot is “good enough” for Atlantic City is up for debate. Given the current lack of bigger, accessible options in Atlantic City, Save A Lot’s customers are, for now, reconciled with taking what they can get, and hoping for more. They don’t control Trenton’s purse strings, or the ambitions of private investment firms that figure into to whether they can buy fresh sliced deli meat in their local supermarket.

Arturo Torres, 52, shopping with his mother, Wando Oquendo, had filled a cart with bottled water, produce, and other groceries. A cook at Cuba Libre at the Tropicana, he said he also shops other markets like the well-stocked (and empanada-famous) Boom Market and New La Cosecha, further down on Atlantic Avenue, and will go to other towns for a big shop.

“ShopRite has stuff that this doesn’t have,” Torres said. Asked for an example, he was specific: “Like mascarpone cheese for tiramisu.”

In 1996, Renaissance Plaza was the site of another generation’s big ideas about a supermarket. But the original ballyhooed Thriftway came and went after 8 years, and the liquor store stayed.

Eventually, the CVS left, leaving a few fast food places (one, a Popeyes, is on a newly rebuilt pad, an improvement from its previous site on Atlantic Avenue), a dollar store, and the plasma donation storefront.

In the meantime, Save A Lot corporate ownership transferred to Rinnier’s Save Philly Stores. He started wondering why some of that ShopRite money couldn’t come his way. He did interior remodeling, added LED lighting, aisles and inventory, and tried to make sure produce and meat cleared the bar of a typical supermarket.

But freezers and other equipment are dated, still with their Thriftway maroon and grey, and he really needs a cash infusion to bring the store up to where a comparison to a ShopRite is not aspirational.

Everyone points out the lack of a deli counter, a bakery, and prepared foods. Rinnier says he’s trying to work out a deal with Dietz & Watson to bring in fresh precut meats daily.

Customer Abdul Jabbar, 62, a cook at Ocean Casino, notes the market is close to three senior apartment buildings, and those seniors are Save A Lot’s most loyal customers, though the clientele gets younger into the night.

Jabbar says he shops at Save A Lot daily and also would like a “fully equipped supermarket,” with competitive prices, a deli, and a bakery. But (paging Ashkenazy) it’s not the deli he says is most needed.

“This is all that’s needed: security,” Jabbar says. “This place would be booming. This place would fly.”