DETROIT— Parkway Foods, one of the city’s newest grocery stores, was recently awarded an $830,000 grant from the state. 

Michael Finney, president and CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, said the grant will help bring even more healthy and fresh food offerings to Detroit.

A total of $1.2 million in grants and loans was awarded to the store’s owner and the retail center that houses it. The Detroit Economic Growth Corporation provided a $200,000 loan as well as a $225,000 loan through Invest Detroit to redevelop the shopping center.

Parkway Foods is located in the empty Shops at Jefferson Village shopping center. The grants and loans are being distributed one year after the grocery chain Whole Foods opened a store in Detroit. Whole Foods received millions of dollars worth of tax credits from the state. 

When Whole Foods received the tax credits, many local Chaldean Americans expressed concern that the billion dollar corporation had obtained government subsidies, while Chaldean-owned supermarkets that had been in Detroit for decades had never received assistance from the state.

Chaldean Americans own more than 80 percent of the supermarkets in Detroit. Louie Nona, the president of Parkway Foods, which opened two months ago, has been selling groceries in Detroit for more than 40 years. 

Parkway Foods used to operate at a different location in Detroit that bordered Grosse Pointe. Nona ran that location for more than 30 years.