Robért’s Fresh Market

Reinvestment Fund joined our ReFresh Partner, Hope Enterprise, to finance the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Robért’s Fresh Market, which has been closed for 11 years after sustaining damage during Hurricane Katrina.

The Robért family has operated stores in New Orleans for over 20 years. This store is located in an economically diverse community that is considered low-access by USDA and the store’s trade area includes a number of USDA low access and low income areas.

Financing for the $8.5 million project was led by Hope Enterprise. Reinvesment Fund participated in the financing, lending towards construction and equipment costs. Reinvestment Fund’s financing includes revolved capital from the federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative. Other investors include the City of New Orleans through the Fresh Food Retailer Initiative Program, which aims to increase access to fresh foods in traditionally underserved neighborhoods, while providing quality employment opportunities and serving as a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization. The store expects to create 30 full-time and 50 part-time jobs as well as 150 construction jobs.

Located along the St. Claude corridor, the fullservice store will include a variety of fresh and perishable departments. In addition to the grocery store, the Robert family expects to develop additional retail spaces on the site. Based on its Limited Supermarket Access (LSA) analysis, Reinvestment Fund estimates a total food retail demand of $59 million within the store’s service area. Given that there is no full service, traditional grocery store in this market, the store expects to capture unmet demand.