New market for Dyker Heights

February 17, 2007

By Matthew Lysiak
The Brooklyn Paper

A former Dyker Heights movie theater that the city hoped to turn into a school will instead become a grocery store — and local residents are overjoyed.

Great Wall Supermarket is scheduled to open its 10th city store this May in the defunct Fortway Theater, which is 14 blocks from the nearest supermarket.

“It’s about time,” said resident Eacliffe Simon. “I have had to walk all the way to Third Avenue for my groceries.”

The supermarket will not only be a cut above the average greengrocer (thanks to 20,000 square feet of space) but will also employ more than 50 people, its owner said.

“This is wonderful news,” said Community Board 10 District Manager Josephine Beckmann, who lives a few blocks from the site.

The School Construction Authority originally eyed the Fortway, on Fort Hamilton Parkway near 67th Street, and locals have been eager for more classroom space. But plans to build a school hit a snag when some residents raised concerns about the site’s proximity to a popular shooting range, which is in the basement of the adjoining building.

“Opening a new school remains a very high priority, and we will continue to look,” Councilman Vince Gentile (D-Bay Ridge) at the announcement of the supermarket deal last Thursday. “It just didn’t work out this time.”

Borough President Markowitz and Great Wall owner Spirro Geroulanos were also on hand for the announcement.

Geroulanos said his store would distinguish itself by its fresh produce and high-quality offerings.

“People have been pleading me to bring a supermarket to this spot,” the Beep said. “It looks like Dyker Heights has become quite the dynamic shopping strip.”