Special Report: Fine Fare Supermarkets - Fordham Heights, Bronx, NY

Fine Fare Supermarkets
Opened: June 1, 2024

Owner: unknown

Previous Tenants: assorted banks

Cooperative: Retail Grocers Group/General Trading

Location: 2526 Grand Concourse, Fordham Heights, Bronx, NY

Photographed: July 12, 2024

New York City is a weird place. It's a wonderful place that I love, to be sure, but it's weird -- not least from a real estate perspective. It's got so many wonderful historic buildings, and some have been beautifully preserved, others demolished long ago, and some interestingly repurposed. So when a vacant bank in the Fordham Heights section of the Bronx reopened as a Fine Fare supermarket, I suppose I shouldn't have been too surprised. But this is one of the most interesting supermarket conversions I've ever seen -- one of the most beautiful, to be sure -- and it surely is like nothing else I've ever been to.

The art-deco building at 2526 Grand Concourse was built in the early 1930s as the Dollar Savings Bank, then later became several other banks, ultimately sitting vacant when Apple Bank closed up shop in the location years ago. A major remodel and redevelopment began, with Rockland County-based Aufgang Architects masterminding the plan to restore the building while simultaneously thoroughly changing its function. The space is roughly 32,000 square feet (I'm not sure if that includes any spaces on upper or lower levels, though) and today is a large, complete supermarket. There are quite a few other supermarkets in the neighborhood -- such as the City Fresh Market just a block south -- but this store is significantly larger than most, and I would say most directly competes with a beautiful Food Fair Fresh Market three blocks west on Jerome Avenue. That store also is large, with a very complete selection and a service-intensive perimeter (the grand aisle includes multiple prepared foods counters, a juice bar, sushi, and a massive in-store bakery, a rarity in New York City supermarkets).

While this Fine Fare doesn't have an in-store bakery, it still has a large selection of baked goods and fresh breads, which greets us as we enter the store's sprawling grand aisle in the former bank lobby. A sushi counter sits immediately opposite the entrance, with a seating area behind it. Bakery, deli, and hot food line the right-side wall, with packaged deli items and cheeses opposite. The produce department then takes up the largest space in the bank lobby, with the registers on the front wall in front of produce. It seems that Fine Fare has expanded into the bank's former backrooms (or possibly offices?) at the far back of the store, with butcher and packaged meats in a hallway running along the back wall of the store. Dairy and frozen are in the first few grocery aisles in the main bank room, then additional grocery aisles and the seafood department are to the far left. Seafood is in the back-left corner, and the left-side grocery aisles run side-to-side rather than front to back.

And Fine Fare has beautifully restored nearly every part of the building! My one complaint -- which, I know, is all but unavoidable if you have any form of budget -- is the gorgeous marble floor is patched with concrete in several places, probably where damage was too extensive to simply finish over. It's not particularly noticeable in person, though, and the only blemish on this otherwise gorgeous supermarket.

Here's a look at self-service fresh breads, rolls, and bagels in the front corner. Check out the clock over the entrance!

And it's, obviously, a ridiculously gorgeous setting for a supermarket. The best part, though, is that they've so beautifully preserved and restored every part of the building's interior when it easily could've just been removed or covered up. (If the HDC link above is any indication, though, the building is a protected historical landmark, so that would've been required.)

And to the left of the seating area is the spacious produce department. Rows of produce bins with these dark awnings over them populate the center of the bank lobby, with the incredible paintings on the back wall looming over the stores. Look at how beautifully the stone and accents have all been restored!

Another incredible part of this store is its massive front windows, which run nearly floor to ceiling (and you can see just how high the ceiling is here). They let in an enormous amount of natural light, and the lighting in the supermarket nicely complements that.

Here's a look across the front-end of the supermarket from the produce/grand aisle side.

I suppose we can't compete with Dublin's supermarket displaying Viking artifacts through a glass floor, but this is pretty darn impressive. This brings me to the second thing that truly impressed me about this grocery store: it seemed like an absolutely top-notch supermarket to actually shop in. I was impressed with the selection and everything looked really good.

Here's the back wall of the bank lobby room, which is now used for cut produce and beer, to the far left. The meat department is in a room behind this wall.

And you can see that, where we transition from the bank lobby room to the expansion, in this picture...

Notice that this back section has skylights, which help keep it from feeling like a cavern. The service butcher is on the right side of this section, with packaged meats lining both sides of the rest of the hallway.

Quite a beautiful setup, in my opinion.

I know exactly zero about bank architecture, but is it possible this was the vault? Elsewhere in the store there are pictures of the vault and its enormous door, but I couldn't tell exactly where in the building they were taken. And heading back out into the main supermarket...

The first two grocery aisles next to produce are dairy, and the following two are frozen foods. Additional frozen foods are on the front wall.

It looks like all the fixtures here were brand-new when the store opened -- I don't see anything that looks secondhand.

For what it's worth, both this store and the Food Fair nearby seem to really be raising the bar as far as supermarkets in this neighborhood go. I wouldn't be surprised if this store (Food Fair definitely is) also is trying to attract students from nearby Fordham University, which is about ten blocks east of here.

Two aisles of frozen foods up next...

And there's a few aisles of general grocery in this section too, although most of the grocery aisles run side-to-side in the next section over. Notice that, since the ceiling is so high, the aisle markers are actually affixed to the tops of the aisles rather than hanging from the ceiling.

Here's beer and single-serve beverages on the back wall of the store.

And if we turn around 180 degrees from the above photo, we're put in aisle 12, the back aisle of the supermarket, which is in the left-side expansion. I don't know exactly what this was (was it offices? It seems to have been a separate room from the main lobby area) but this is now where most of the grocery aisles are. Service seafood on the back wall, and frozen packaged seafood facing.

Paper and cleaning are also in this section, which you can see here on the far-left wall of the store. Notice the historical pictures above the shelving, which show this bank building in its heyday.

I would argue the building is having a second heyday, as this store was quite busy when I visited and seems to be fairly popular in its new form. I assume it's getting more traffic as a supermarket than it did as a bank, at least.

Here's the transition between the side-to-side aisles and the front-to-back aisles.

Zoom into the picture on the back wall there, and you'll see what the exterior of this building looked like way back when.

But again, the store is extremely well-stocked and has a lot to offer, certainly much more than the average (much smaller) supermarket in this area.

There's the picture of the vault I mentioned, looking down over a (nearly) perfect display of sale grocery items. Times change, but I would say this is just as good a use of the space as a bank -- if not better.

Now heading over towards the front wall (you can see the entrance at the far side of the building, and the exit is under this closer clock). Hidden between the snacks and the big jugs of oil is actually a freezer case with baked goods and desserts.

And a look at the front-end from this side of the store...

You exit behind that case, up a small ramp and out the exit door on the grocery/seafood side of the store. Even this is tastefully designed, with large glass panels separating the walkway from the main supermarket but still allowing for nearly panoramic views of the building as you exit.

This is truly one of the most spectacular supermarkets I've ever seen, and it's a gorgeous renovation of a historic building! This might be the most exciting, but there's a few other stores to see today. Check them out here!