Albany County will purchase the former South End grocery store in the city after the legislature approved a resolution Monday night.

The county legislature voted 26-8 to invest $450,000 in American Rescue Plan funding to purchase the store, which had originally opened late in 2022. The store closed for business last year.

The meeting's agenda indicated that, if the vote passed, the former store at 106 South Pearl Street would be purchased "from AACC Holdings, LLC through a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure transaction."

The property, a former McDonald's, had been purchased for $850,000 in 2021 by BlueLight Development Group in conjunction with the African American Cultural Center of the Capital Region.

In a statement Tuesday, County Legislator Frank Mauriello (R - District 27) called the purchase "a textbook example of government waste."

"In case my colleagues forgot, County taxpayers already shelled out $200,000 for this property and we have nothing to show for it," Mauriello said in the statement. "We as a County should not be throwing good money after bad. We should be able to admit we made a mistake and move on. And we should absolutely stay out of the business of bailing out banks who made poor lending choices."