City Approves Permits for Fairway, Green Market

The city has granted approval for to to begin construction at the Douglaston Shopping Plaza as well as issued a street permit that would allow nonprofit GrowNYC to operate a near the neighborhood’s Long Island Rail Road station, Community Board 11’s district manager said.

The city’s Department of Buildings approved Fairway’s building permit, allowing for the upscale grocery chain to construct the market at the shopping plaza. Fairway will also be able to put up a larger sign bearing the market's name.

“We were waiting for it to go through but now they can get a contractor, unless they already have one, and get started,” CB 11 District Manager Susan Seinfeld.

The market, which will replace Waldbaum’s along 61st Avenue, was originally scheduled to open in spring 2010 before being pushed back several times amid an extended process during which Fairway attempted to obtain a building permit and work out interior design issues with Con Edison.

Community leaders said they have been told the market was expected to open in November.

Fairway could not be reached for comment.

This morning, the city also granted permission for GrowNYC to operate a green market in the traffic circle at Douglaston’s LIRR station, Seinfeld said.

The city’s Street Activity Permit Office will allow the market to operate from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on July 10 through Nov. 20.

GrowNYC, which operates the massive green market in Union Square, announced that it had chosen Delia Rollow as manager for the Douglaston site.

Rollow moved from New York City to Massachusetts last year to learn about organic farming and worked at a farm school in the Catskills.

For a list of vendors and more information, visit the Douglaston green market’s website.