By Kathianne Boniello
The new Duane Reade convenience store in Little Neck was set to celebrate its grand opening Friday at the newly built shop just off the intersection of Marathon Parkway and Horace Harding Expressway.
The opening of the new drug store makes it the second such establishment to take root in the area in the last three months and the third convenience store within a one-mile radius.
A spokesman for the Duane Reade company said the Little Neck store will employ about 20 people.
Construction on the Duane Reade began in October and the new store is the Manhattan-based company’s first in northeastern Queens.
The store is located on the eastern side of the Deepdale Plaza shopping center, which has its own parking lot. The property owner for the shopping center told the TimesLedger last year that the lot would be expanded to replace parking taken away during construction.
Duane Reade has about 20 locations in Queens and some in western Nassau County, but none in northeastern Queens.
According to the Duane Reade web site at www.duanereade.com, the chain’s other Queens locations include Glen Oaks, Flushing, Fresh Meadows, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Rego Park, Forest Hills, Long Island City, Woodside, Maspeth, Laurelton, Jamaica and Rockaway. There are also several Duane Reade stores in Nassau County, including New Hyde Park, Franklin Square, Massapequa, Mineola, Williston Park, and Hicksville.
In March 2001 a new Genovese opened its doors on Northern Boulevard in Little Neck about a mile away from the Duane Reade.
Joining about 29 other Genovese stores in the borough, the drug store was built in a storefront that had been an empty, burnt-out structure for the past decade after a fire in a restaurant there gutted the building. The location adjacent to Scobee Diner at the intersection of Northern Boulevard and Little Neck Parkway used to house the restaurant Catherine’s of Great Neck as well as law offices and a chiropractor’s office.
Renovations to that space began in early 2000, repairing the building’s roof and adding a new beige-colored storefront for the future Genovese as well as the neighboring Mr. China, a longstanding business in the community.
Genovese and Duane Reade join Le Drug Store, an established Little Neck business, as the only convenience stores in the area. Le Drug Store is located in a shopping center at the intersection of Horace Harding Expressway and Little Neck Parkway.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
