Mount Kisco Welcomes New ShopRite to Community With Fanfare
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Mount Kisco rolled out the red carpet on Sunday for the new ShopRite supermarket that debuted at the Diamond Properties complex at 333 N. Bedford Rd.
Company executives and local officials participated in a more than half-hour grand opening ceremony outside the area’s latest supermarket as its first customers went shopping.
For ShopRite President Steve Savas, it was a long journey to plan for and receive the approvals for what he characterized as a “replacement store.” The 74,000-square-foot state-of-the-art supermarket opened at 9 a.m. Sunday, 16 hours after the company’s Bedford Hills store, just over the town line, closed its doors after 46 years.
“We’ve been looking forward to enjoying this store since 2017,” Savas said of the market that is known as ShopRite of Mount Kisco. “As you can imagine it’s been a long and winding journey, going from signing a lease to actually seeing this beautiful building here. We’ve been fortunate enough to be in this market since 1978, 46 years, right down the street in our Bedford Hills store, and we couldn’t be more thrilled than to open this brand-new building for you in Mount Kisco for this great community.”
Nearly twice the size as the old store and with roughly 200 employees, about twice as many as were employed in Bedford Hills, the interior sparkled and there were fully stocked shelves.
Among the features of the new store are an expanded produce department with fresh, local and organic offerings, a meat department with skilled butchers available that can provide custom cuts to patrons and a seafood department with daily fresh deliveries. There will be plenty of choices for organic, ethnic and kosher foods and a variety of prepared meals and fresh-cut fruits and vegetables.
Store manager Mackinley Moise recognized the hard work and dedication of everyone involved with the company and the community that helped open the new store. It will “offer you a shopping experienced like no other,” he said.
“Today is a celebration, an excitement and new beginnings,” Moise said. “We are thrilled to open the doors of our new brand-new store and welcome you all to experience what we’ve been working on so hard to create.”
The event also included the local fire department participating in the opening festivities and women dressed and performing as ShopRite’s Can Can dancers.
Mount Kisco Mayor Michael Cindrich also credited property owner Jim Diamond for having the vision to transform the former Grand Union warehouse site, which sat empty for about a decade, into a thriving complex that also features Grand Prix New York, the Saw Mill Club East and other tenants.
Cindrich said when he first met Diamond in 2004, early in his first tenure as mayor and after the developer bought the parcel, they talked about potential uses for the site. Twenty years later, the mayor said he’s amazed at what has been done with the land.
“He took the property and developed it in a fashion that I didn’t think was possible, and I very proud of that,” Cindrich said. “So this is a destination location. Hopefully, it will bring people into the downtown, and ShopRite’s been very generous already to the village and I’m sure they’re going to continue to do that.”
The mayor mentioned that there will continue to be traffic problems on North Bedford Road, especially during peak travel times, but that there are likely still to be road improvements that will have to be made.
“The traffic situation is, in one word, untenable, but I’d rather have traffic than no traffic,” Cindrich said. “At various times of the day it’s very reasonable, at other times, there are traffic headaches, so this is something we’re going to have to live with.”
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
