By Katy Gagnon
After much controversy over what kind of business should replace the Waldbaum's in the Douglaston Plaza Shopping Center, the community members who fought the proposal to bring a Best Buy electronics store may have gotten their wish: A supermarket will remain in the plaza.
Fairway Market, the Upper West Side's emporium of cheese, olives, fresh produce and prepared foods that has a dedicated following, will replace Waldbaum's when its lease expires in 2010, according to plans revealed to community leaders.
The property owners and a Fairway Market representative disclosed the plans during a meeting held at state Assemblyman Mark Weprin's (D-Little Neck) office earlier this month, claiming that removing a supermarket from the plaza would not serve the neighboring community.
“We wanted a supermarket and we got one, and not a bad one either, one with a very good reputation,” Weprin said, calling the Fairway Market plans “a very big victory for the community.”
There are two Fairways in Manhattan, one in Brooklyn and one in Plainview, L.I. This would be the first location in Queens. The first Fairway Market opened as a fruit and vegetable stand near the store's current location on Broadway at West 74th Street in the 1930s.
Last year Weprin joined Douglaston residents and other elected officials to fight the Best Buy proposal. In order to replace Waldbaum's with an electronics store, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., Douglaston Plaza's property owners, needed approval from the city Board of Standards and Appeals.
In January, after a series of hearings with the board, Ashkenazy withdrew its application.
Weprin said the plaza owners reached out to him as a way to gauge the community's reception to the possibility of the popular grocery store coming to Queens, and so far the reaction is favorable.
Anna Levine, a Douglaston resident who spearheaded the opposition to the Best Buy proposal, cheered the Fairway Market announcement, but said she was anxious to hear about the detailed plans for the store.
Weprin echoed the same caution.
Fairway has provided some potential plans for the Douglaston site.
The market hopes to build a 9,000-square-foot expansion in the rear of the store that would increase storage space and keep fresh food in stock, Weprin said. The chain also would like to install an elevator in the two-story parking lot adjacent to the store so as to make it more convenient for customers to reach, Weprin said.
In order to do this, Fairway would need to file a modification of a variance with the BSA. It would also have to go before Community Board 11 and Borough President Helen Marshall, said CB 11 District Manager Susan Seinfeld, who attended the meeting.
Nonetheless, Seinfeld believes the proposal to bring Fairway Market to Douglaston Plaza will be well-received.
“The community wanted a grocery store to stay,” she said. “It's a very under-served area for grocery stores.”
Reach reporter Katy Gagnon by e-mail at kgagnon@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300 Ext 174.
