The Multicultural Business Coalition, a group whose members include immigrant-owned grocery operators, has taken New York City to court over democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani's plan to open multiple government-owned grocery stores in the Big Apple, a government intervention that is expected to cut into the profits of regular markets.

"Make no mistake about this plan," the group's president, Ken Roldan, said in a statement, according to the New York Post. "It is a direct assault on minority business by a mayor who claims to be a champion of disenfranchised poor and working-class New Yorkers."

The litigation, filed Monday in New York state court after efforts to resolve the dispute out of court, consists of two suits. A class action alleges that the plan runs afoul of New York civil rights laws and the state Constitution's Equal Protection Clause and seeks relief and damages. The other suit calls for permanently blocking the operation of "the municipal grocery stores, in absence of undertaking necessary studies and analysis."

Before filing, the coalition had sought a negotiated resolution. "Although we have not heard from you since May 2026, we are open to resolving this matter amicably with more sensible solutions to feed working class people with nutritious essential food items at affordable prices," the coalition's president, Kenneth Roldan, declared in a letter to City Hall, according to a New York Post report last week.

"We are asking the mayor to avoid litigation to sit down with us," Mark Jaffe, legal counsel for the coalition and president of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, told the outlet. "But we have to try to stop this if they won't listen to us."

The grocery store plan was a signature plank of the affordability agenda Mamdani ran on in his 2025 campaign for City Hall, which also included fare-free buses and a rent freeze. According to the mayor's office, which announced the timeline earlier this year, the first of five planned government-linked grocery stores is expected to open next year.

Mamdani defended the initiative on Monday, saying he is "fully confident in both the legality and the importance of our initiative."

"We are talking about a reflection of a cost of living crisis that has seen grocery prices increase by about 30% over the last few years, and we're also talking about delivering five city-run grocery stores in a city of 8.5 million people that has more than a thousand grocery stores," Mamdani said. "And we've seen, in fact, with Essex Street Market in Manhattan, as well as, more Street Market in Brooklyn, a model where the city has subsidized groceries and it has not had a negative effect on bodegas around them or on grocery stores around them."

Under the program's structure, "the City will own the land and cover overhead costs like rent and construction. A private operator, selected through a request for proposals, will manage daily operations and be contractually required to pass savings directly to customers on a core basket of everyday staples," an April news release stated.

Mamdani has claimed that prices for a core basket of grocery items at the government-affiliated stores will be set 30% lower than normal retail prices.

Municipally owned grocery stores remain rare in the United States, and existing examples have mostly come from small towns stepping in after private grocers left their communities — Baldwin, Florida, opened one in 2018, and Seaside, California, launched what was described as that state's first city-owned grocery store in 2023.

"This core set of goods will include all fresh produce, meat and seafood along with 20 other essential items like cheese, milk and bread. Here's how it will work: Once a month, our five city-run grocery stores will set prices for this core set of goods at 30% below typical retail prices," he said last month.

The legal fight now proceeds in state court alongside the city's request-for-proposals process for selecting private operators, and the coalition's suits ask a judge to halt the stores before the first location is set to open next year.

FOX Business' Madison Alsworth and Sumner Park contributed to this report.