Douglaston Greenmarket Will Not Return, But Bayside Sites Being Considered

The Douglaston greenmarket will not return this summer, but northeast Queens community leaders are eyeing spots for a potential market in Bayside.

At Community Board 11’s monthly meeting on Monday, Chairman Jerry Iannece announced that Douglaston’s market would not return this year, but that nonprofit GrowNYC agreed to discuss other local sites to potentially locate a greenmarket.

“It wasn’t frequented enough by the community,” Iannece said of Douglaston’s greenmarket, which debuted in 2011. “But GrowNYC is willing to talk to us about other sites in our community. They want to stay in our areas and I think it’s a great thing.”

One potential spot would be near Bayside’s Long Island Rail Road station, Iannece said.

Douglas Montgomery, a real estate agent who helped spearhead the plans for the Douglaston market, said he intended to speak to GrowNYC, which operates the massive market in Union Square, this week.

“They want it in CB 11 and I think there’s a need for it,” he said. “We tried it in Douglaston, but it didn’t work out because it only catered to a certain area. We need a higher traffic volume area. We are going to take suggestions on it.”

Montgomery, who volunteered during the board’s Monday night meeting to act as chairman for a site selection committee for a greenmarket, said he wasn’t sure how likely the Bayside LIRR site would be chosen due to a lack of parking in the area.

He said other proposed sites are Fort Totten’s parking lot, St. Anastasia Church and various spots in Bayside or Auburndale.

The earliest the new market could open would be summer 2014, he said.

GrowNYC could not immediately be reached for comment.