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Supermarket opening at former Maspeth pharmacy just down the block from a Key Food

This defunct Duane Reade pharmacy in Maspeth may soon become a Key Food supermarket.
Photo via Google Maps

BY HANNAH FRISHBERG

A supermarket will be moving into the former Duane Reade pharmacy at 66-56 Grand Ave. in Maspeth.

There is a Key Food down the block at 66-17 Grand Ave., and it will be retaining this location despite the arrival of a new supermarket, a store employee told the Ridgewood Times.

The market is slated to open as early as January or February 2018, the employee said, depending on how fast construction goes.

Locals took to Facebook late last week to report that the for rent sign in the shuttered Duane Reade had been removed, with work permits posted in its place. Speculation among residents on Facebook is that the new supermarket would be a second Key Food location.

Applications for construction on the closed pharmacy were approved in October and earlier this month, according to Department of Buildings permits.

The single-story structure will not be expanded, merely altered, with mainly mechanical and plumbing-related changes. No work is currently scheduled for the existing Grand Avenue Key Food.

The Key Food supermarket at 66-17 Grand Ave. in Maspeth (photo via Google Maps)
The Key Food supermarket at 66-17 Grand Ave. in Maspeth (Photo via Google Maps)

The new supermarket will be less than a block from the Grand Avenue Key Food.

Despite one employee confidently confirming that the new supermarket would be another Key Food location this morning, upon calling back to question why Key Food would open two branches so close to each other, a store manager called the confirmation “baloney.” The store manager said the grocery is unsure if the new location will be a Key Food and was unwilling to confirm any information.

Different Key Food store employees reached yesterday were also unclear on details, confirming only that the former pharmacy would become a grocery, but that they were unsure which supermarket would move in.

At 31,796 square feet, the new location will be more than double the size of the nearby Key Food, which measures in at just 12,035 square feet, according to PropertyShark.