Zo’s cheap groceries will cost taxpayers a pretty penny.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first-unveiled city-owned grocery store will cost a staggering $30 million to build from the ground up at East Harlem’s longstanding La Marqueta, officials confirmed – as local grocers worried it’d gobble up their business.

The new grocery at the  longstanding city-owned La Marqueta marketplace will run with a yet-to-be-picked operator reaping the benefits of a rent- and tax-free deal, City Hall officials told The Post on Monday.

Mamdani envisions that the low-cost deal — which he anounced during a Sunday celebration of his first 100 days in office -– will allow the grocery’s operator to pass on savings to hardscrabble New Yorkers reeling from foodstuff sticker shock, but neighboring grocer Abdul Shaher had doubts about its efficiency based on the exorbitant $30 million upfront cost.

“How can they manage something like that? A small supermarket?” said Shaher, who owns and manages Healthy Choice near La Marqueta, laughing with disbelief. 

Even assuming New York City’s priciest union-driven construction costs, a standard-sized 25,000-square-foot grocery store should only be about $15 million to build, said Adam Lehodey, an expert at the Manhattan Institute.

“Thirty million dollars for one store is exceptionally high, considering land prices are a significant part of the capital costs of new construction, and the city has announced that rents will be waived,” he said.

Mamdani has proposed spending $70 million in taxpayer money for constructing his envisioned five city-owned grocery stores. 

The La Marqueta location may be the first site selected, but other locations will be picked and opened sooner, officials said.

Another grocery will be opened by the end of this year, with all five ready for shoppers by the end of Mamdani’s first term in 2029, the officials said.

Mamdani’s administration is currently scouring the city for locations that don’t require a full ground-up build, officials said.

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Opening five city-owned grocery stores in each borough was one of Mamdani’s marquee affordability promises during his successful run for mayor.

His proposal drew dire warnings of “Soviet”-style markets forcing private businesses to shutter, with billionaire owner John Catsimatidis threatening to close or sell his Gristedes chain if Mamdani was elected.

Other critics argued that municipal markets in other places – notably a barren city-owned grocery in Kansas City, Missouri – had struggled and closed.

An undaunted Mamdani pointed to toward several successful government-owned groceries, such as one in St. Paul, Kansas, a community of roughly 600 people.

New York City arguably has a similar effort already in effect: six public retail markets, including La Marqueta.

Indeed, the selection of La Marqueta carries symbolic weight that Mamdani was keen to point out during his 100 days speech.

His idol, former Mayor Fiorella La Guardia, had established the marketplace as a location during the 1930s where working people could save money on fruits and vegetables.

“We will continue his legacy,” Mamdani said.

“We are building a brand-new store on city-owned land currently sitting empty in East Harlem, a neighborhood where nearly 40% of households received public assistance or SNAP in the past year.”

Essex Market, Moore Street Market and La Marqueta – all of which host a collection of vendors are directly managed by the city’s Economic Development Corporation. 

The remaining markets – Gourmet Glatt, Jamaica Farmers Market and Arthur Avenue Market – are managed by their tenants, although the EDC oversees them.

The EDC will oversee the design and construction of the La Marqueta grocery. 

Grocers near La Marqueta complained Mamdani’s market would hurt their businesses.

“It’s gonna affect us real hard,” said Victor Vazquez, 33, manager at City Fresh Market. “It’s too near!

“Our prices might have to go up.”

A half-gallon of whole milk goes for $2.99 at City Fresh Market, as does a dozen eggs. 

Augustine Espinal, 58, who owns the Pamela’s Grocery Store bodega, said he has already “lost business” with La Marqueta open as it is.

“The city has a much stronger business than I do. It’ll be a loss in income,” Espinal said.

Milk and eggs both cost $3.99 at Pamela’s. 

But many Harlem residents complained about the lack of quality food options, with Maria Huerta, 47, calling the area a grocery desert.

She welcomed the potential new grocery store, but hoped it’d be around in the long-term, especially with its price tag of $30 million worth of taxpayer cash.

“It’s very difficult to find fresh fruit or vegetables,” she said. “Every place is just fast food.

“Groceries are very expensive, almost unaffordable. You have to always be looking for sales.”

City Hall officials said they’ll identify third-party, expert grocery operators to run Mamdani’s public groceries. 

Operators will be required to directly pass along any in-kind or direct subsidies to customers in the form of reduced prices, officials said. 

Those operators also will be under strict pricing, affordability, labor, operating and reporting requirements, city officials said.

Tanya Sanchez, 47, owner of Tanya’s Herbal Cabinet and another long-time East Harlem resident, agreed the community lacks for healthy food options.

She said private-owned grocers in the community aren’t necessarily wrong to worry about competition from the city, but she also doubted it would completely drive the other businesses out, citing the example of a Target that opened in Harlem.

“People were going there first when it was brand new, but then a lot of people just kept continuing, going to their regular grocery stores,” Sanchez said. “So, it balances off.”

Some experts argued Mamdani’s plan could end up becoming more costly over time.

“New York City has a challenging budget landscape; so far we have yet to see an analysis that shows this is the most cost-effective way to promote food security,” said Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission.

Stephen Smith, executive director of the Center for Building in North America, argued the city should focus instead on lowering barries to national chains that already sell more affordable groceries from opening in the Big Apple.

“I think the city is going to struggle to balance the delivery of a high-quality, affordable grocery store with all of the ancillary demands for above-market wages for store and construction workers and the city’s very slow procurement process,” he said. 

“The grocery industry is low-margin, so heavy subsidy will be needed to counteract the these inherent inefficiencies, and I’m just not sure there’s going to be the political appetite for much of that for long.”