Gentile Announces Agreement with Walgreens For Use of Former Key Food Parking Lot
By Harold Egeln
Brooklyn Eagle
BAY RIDGE – Bay Ridge is finally getting its own Greenmarket this Saturday in the parking lot of the closed Key Food on Third Avenue, thanks to an agreement Councilman Vincent Gentile cooked up with Walgreens, the new tenant at the former supermarket site.
Harvesting its open air farmers market cornucopia of fresh food will be local shoppers, who will have the market at the parking lot site on Third Avenue at 95th Street every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from October 4 through December 27. A ribbon cutting celebration inaugurates the market this Saturday at 8 a.m. with fun and entertainment.
“After a year of hard work, I’m thrilled to welcome a Greenmarket to Bay Ridge,” said Councilman Gentile, speaking at a press conference on Monday in the parking lot. “The community has been hard hit with the closing of this Key Food in June, and I know that the families and residents of Bay Ridge will support our farmers.”
The Bay Ridge Greenmarket, the 47th market operated as a Council on the Environment of New York project started in 1976, will offer basic food items. They include fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, dairy, baked goods and gardening plants from at least six farm vendors from upstate New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The Key Food closed in June after the site’s landlords made a deal with the Walgreens drug store chain to locate there. A supermarket had been at the location for decades and its closing was the subject of a petition and a protest rally. The closest supermarket is Foodtown, three blocks to the north on Third Avenue, which has a parking lot and is planning a 9,000 square-foot expansion.
With the Key Food loss and the yearlong wait for a Greenmarket, Gentile said, “There are two old adages appropriate to this. ‘When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade.’ And, ‘if you fail at first and want to succeed, you try and try again.’ With that, we have made the Bay Ridge Greenmarket a reality.”
A plan to locate the Greenmarket in the parking lot at Our Lady of Angels Church at Third Avenue and 73rd Street was rejected earlier this year and other sites fell through as well.
“The councilman is a graduate of Fort Hamilton High School where the sports team is the Bulldogs,” said Chair Dean Rasinya of Community Board 10. “All along the councilman has kept that bulldog approach to this and all things in which he believes.”
Greenmarkets Leader and Walgreens Director Hail Agreement
“We’ve tried everything to make this happen. We’re thrilled to have this opportunity and to be welcomed into the Bay Ridge community,” said Greenmarket Executive Director Michael Hurwitz, accompanied by Greenmarket employee Cathy Chambers of Bay Ridge. “We believe a Greenmarket will be a great additional resource, and that Bay Ridge will support our farmers. This site is sort of a natural place.”
The new market will actually be Bay Ridge’s second. A decade ago there was one in Leif Ericson Park on Fourth Avenue at 67th Street, off the beaten track of the commercial district. With a modest attendance, it eventually folded. Shortly after, the Sunset Park Greenmarket opened on Fourth Avenue and 60th Street, a Community Board Seven neighborhood.
Of the new location at the former Key Food site, Hurwitz said, “The location, guaranteed foot traffic, and overwhelming outcry and support from the community are all qualities that lead me to believe that this Greenmarket will be a success.”
“Walgreens appreciates Councilman Gentile contacting us regarding this opportunity to host a Greenmarket at our store site,” said Hien Nguyen, Walgreens’ Staten Island and Brooklyn district manager. He read a statement from Donovan Pepper, Walgreens’ manager of state and local government relations. “We appreciate being part of the solution to help bring fresh produce and healthy items to the neighborhood.”
The earliest projected date for Walgreens’ opening is this spring. A new Key Food opens in northern Bay Ridge shortly. Gentile thanked Walgreens’ for “its vision” in supporting the market.
The parking lot will be resurfaced and interior work in the old Key Food building starts at the beginning of 2009, Nguyen said. A community food task force, coordinated by State Senator Marty Golden’s office, represented by spokesperson John Quaglione at the press conference, is submitting a “wish list” of essential food items to increase the choice in Walgreens’ food mart section.
Assemblymembers Alec Brook-Krasny and Janele Hyer-Spencer praised Gentile’s steadfast approach to successfully securing the market. Former Key Food shoppers at the press conference and passing by said they are eagerly looking forward to the market.
If the market proves successful, its supporters would look for a permanent site for next year. “We’re taking one step at a time,” said Gentile, who also noted the progress of the Bay Ridge Food Co-op now being organized.
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© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2008
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