NEW YORK CITY-Federal tax-exempt bonds helped jumpstart a 55,000-square-foot supermarket on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, which opened Friday. The New York City Economic Development Corp. says it’s on track to make full use of the city’s $122-million Recovery Zone bond allocation by year’s end, when the program expires.

The EDC, which selects the projects eligible for the bonds across the city, authorized $5.5 million in tax-exempt financing late last year toward the completion of a 55,000-square-foot, $23-million Stop & Shop supermarket at 70-20 Rockaway Beach Blvd., part of the Arverne by the Sea development complex. Earlier in the year, the EDC had developed the Recover NYC Program to ensure that the bond allocation through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was deployed equitably and efficiently.

In a release, EDC president Seth Pinsky calls the Recovery Zone bond allocation “a great example of a federal program that really worked. Without financing to jumpstart construction, projects like this important supermarket could not have been completed.” Adds Dan Tangherlini, an assistant US Treasury secretary, “New York City has been a national leader in the use of Recovery Zone bonds to invest in hard-hit communities.”

Under ARRA, a total of $25 billion in tax-exempt bonds were made available; the city’s $122-million tax-exempt financing capacity was intended to help get stalled retail and commercial development projects moving. It aimed to provide support for local projects in disadvantaged communities.

In the case of the Stop & Shop, the area was found in a 2008 study to have a high need for more supermarkets. The new store will employ 100 full- and part-time workers when fully staffed.