By Joe Anuta
A grocer called Good Fortune Supermarket is set to replace the former Parsons Boulevard Key Food on the border of Flushing and Whitestone.
Good Fortune is a Maspeth-based company that operates several other stores in Queens and Brooklyn, according to its owner, Quanguo Yang.
“Our advantage is fresh produce and live seafood,” he said. “But, of course, we are going to keep basic groceries.”
Yang described Good Fortune as a typical Asian grocery store, although he said the business will also carry some staples that shoppers would have found at the old Key Food.
The grocer and the owners of the shopping center, Lana Terrace Inc., signed a lease about three months ago, according to Yang. They then filed a permit Feb. 12 with the city Department of Buildings to renovate the inside of the space, in the shopping center at 25-03 Parsons Blvd., and Yang expects he will be open for business in three months.
Residents have been without a supermarket for nearly a year, since the Key Food that previously occupied the spot closed its doors in June.
The owners of that Key Food, Dan’s Supreme, could not come to terms with Lana Terrace on conditions for a new lease, according to those involved in the negotiations, and the store was closed.
But the lease was valid until the end of 2012, which is why the store sat empty. Prior to signing with Good Fortune, the owners of the former Key Food had put up large signs in the store windows, visible from the road, that read: “Lost our lease.”
Transitions between grocery store owners have caused tension in Flushing.
After a Key Food on the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and Bowne Street was shuttered in 2010 and an Asian grocery store called New York Mart took its place, rallies and community meetings followed as residents complained of the lack of what they called American products and a lack of English labels on food items.
But Ken Schuckman of Schuckman Realty said he was commissioned by Lana Terrace to find the perfect fit for the rapidly changing neighborhood, and scoured the tri-state area to ensure both the old and new residents could find groceries at the store.
“I though that Good Fortune would be the best complement to both populations,” he said, adding that the owners have promised to carry some American-style groceries.
A November TimesLedger Newspapers report chronicled the demographic changes that have undergone in the area surrounding the Parsons Boulevard site.
The U.S. census shows that in the area bounded by the Whitestone Expressway, the Cross Island Parkway, 150th Street and roughly the borders of the Mitchell-Linden co-op and condo complex, the population of white residents declined about 30 percent over the last decade, dropping from about 12,500 in 2000 to about 9,200 in 2010.
But the population of Asian residents grew by 80 percent over the same time period from about 5,800 in 2000 to about 10,400 in 2010, according to the census.
Reach reporter Joe Anuta by e-mail at januta@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
