Another supermarket option on its way

Another food market option is coming to the Little Neck-Douglaston area.

Fairway Market is expected to debut its long-anticipated chain store at the Douglaston Plaza Shopping Center following an extensive renovation that delayed the market from opening earlier this year, community leaders said.

Electrical work on the building was completed in August, but the process of obtaining permits from the city's Board of Standards and Appeals prevented the high-end market from opening last spring as originally planned, Community Board 11 District Manager Susan Seinfeld said.

The market, which will be located at 242-02 61st Ave. in Douglaston, will now likely open its doors in March.

"They had some snags and technicalities," CB 11 Chairman Jerry Iannece said. "There were rumors that they were pulling out. Once they got through their initial hurdles with the Board of Standards and Appeals, they told us they would not be opening until early 2011."

Fairway is an upscale supermarket chain that is based in Manhattan's Upper West Side. Each market includes its own baker as well as kosher and non-kosher butchers. The markets also have a large selection of cheeses, coffee, organic food and grocery items.

The new market will replace a Waldbaum's chain store after that supermarket's lease expired last spring. Fairway was scheduled to open shortly afterward, but was pushed back to November and then to spring 2011 after renovations took longer than expected.

"They are running a little behind," said Jeffrey Chester, an attorney for Fairway. "They ran into some plumbing issues that they didn't anticipate. With construction renovations, you run into issues that are not planned."

Elliot Socci, president of the Douglaston Civic Association, said the market also had to fix up the building after Waldbaum's left the site.

"They wanted to upgrade the electrical capacity," he said. "Someone came in to do an inspection and told them the wiring, switchboard and transformers had to be replaced. Then, there was a long approval process. Now, they have to start doing their expansion."

The store will operate every day from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., Chester said.

Douglaston residents have been supportive of Fairway's decision to open the store in the community. Seniors, many of whom do not have cars, living near the Douglaston Plaza Shopping Center must currently travel one mile to Stop & Shop in Little Neck, which is the closest grocer store.

"We have a lot of elderly people in our complex," said Rosemarie Guidice, president of the Douglaston Townhouse and Condominium Association. "The longer this is delayed, the bigger the hardship it is for our seniors."

Fairway also operates markets in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Long Island, Westchester County, Connecticut and New Jersey. Its founder, Nathan Glickberg, first operated Fairway as a fruit and vegetable stand at the corner of Broadway and West 74th Street on Manhattan's Upper West Side in 1940.