Sometimes it takes a village to finance a supermarket, especially in historically underserved neighborhoods like the Hill District.

It has been decades since the Hill had a viable full-size market. The region's supermarket chains insisted they couldn't make the numbers work to justify an investment in the neighborhood. Planting a quality grocery on the Hill for a time even joined the litany of perennial election promises.

In the end, a mix of corporate and public funding has made a full-service supermarket on the Hill possible. The proposed 40,000-square-foot Kuhn's to be built at Centre and Heldman will cost $8.4 million, with $5.35 million coming from public sources.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority, Allegheny County, the federal government and the state have committed to providing two-thirds of the financing. The Hill House Economic Development Corp., the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Kuhn's are also partners in the project.

More important than the initial financing of the store will be the neighborhood's enthusiastic patronage of all of its planned departments, including a pharmacy, a bakery, a deli and a cafe, when it opens in 2010.

A new supermarket represents the neighborhood's best chance to grow beyond limits imposed by decades of neglect.

If the store can thrive, it may be a sign that the Hill District is ready to thrive along with it.