When entrepreneur Ren Parikh emigrated from India to Atlantic City in 2000, he started a driving service and was surprised by the number of city residents who called for supermarket trips.
Food insecurity has weighed on his mind ever since, he says, and now with a New Jersey Economic Development Authority grant, he wants to explore a potential solution in Atlantic City that – if successful – could spread to Camden, Trenton, and Newark.
Parikh’s nonprofit Ideal Institute of Technology in neighboring Pleasantville is scheduled to appear before the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority next Thursday, April 16, for site plan and variance approvals to turn a 100-year-old building into a community co-operative that offers grocery delivery to city residents.
The four-story, 20,000-square-foot building on South Carolina Avenue, vacant for about 25 years, was purchased for $695,000 last May by Ideal from 7 S. Carolina Associates LLC of Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, according to the nonprofit’s CRDA application. An NJEDA grant of up to $703,000, announced in 2024, was used to purchase the property.
Under his plan, a community-owned co-operative would operate:
– A delivery-only “next generation” grocery store from the first floor where residents could pick up their orders or co-op employed drivers would deliver orders at no charge to homes. Customers could not shop there as they would at a supermarket. Parikh said his Ideal Institute, a technical training and workforce development program, has developed an app called “Boardwalk Basket” that would handle orders.
– An aquaponics farm that would raise fish and leafy vegetables for the grocery service. “It’s not just a show and tell,” Parikh told Jersey Digs in an interview. “It’s a commercial production.”
– A “cloud kitchen” open to food entrepreneurs who would cook and have their meals delivered by the co-op drivers, who Parikh said would be employed full-time and be called “block captains.”
– Classrooms and meeting rooms to provide entrepreneurship training.
Parikh estimates the full project will cost $4 million, with funding from private investors and Atlantic City residents who become equity owners of the co-operative. His Ideal Institute is investing $1 million, he said. The project also has received a food security planning grant from Atlantic City that was funded by NJEDA.
“This is a passion project for me,” Parikh explained. “I always had a dream if the city needs access to food, why this many residents cannot have their own supermarket.”
The Boardwalk Basket app also will direct city residents to social service providers through a collaboration with community organizations, said the Old Bridge, Middlesex County, resident.
“The project will also serve as a model for sustainable urban redevelopment and entrepreneurial growth by offering affordable rental space for food entrepreneurs, thereby supporting local businesses and contributing to the city’s tourism-driven economy,” according to the application before the CRDA.
Parikh expects to introduce the app in July and begin food deliveries. He said the rehab of the building will be completed by the end of October.
