Controversial Lowe's Gets Final Approval For Douglaston Plaza

DOUGLASTON, QUEENS -- After a hard-fought battle on both sides, city officials gave Lowe's Home Improvement the green light to start work on a controversial warehouse that ousted the family-owned theater, MovieWorld, from the Douglaston Plaza Shopping Center.

Lowe's is set to move into the Queens mall at 242-02 61st Ave. after the New York City Board of Standards and Appeals approved plans for the 109,000-square-foot store in late June. The hardware giant replacing MovieWorld and a now-shuttered Macy's is slated to open in June 2019 after signing a 15-year-contract with mall owners Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation.

AAC applied for a rezoning variance that would allow the mall to expand by 15,000-square-feet to accommodate the Lowe's, pulling several all-nighters with their legal team to have the application approved by summer, said Jon Popin, a lawyer for the property owners.

"We started calling ourselves the 4 a.m. crew because we literally had to work around the clock," Popin told Patch. "I've been doing this 20 years and I've never worked so late, but we got it done."

The store's BSA approval comes nearly six months after Community Board 11 hosted a heated public hearing on the planned Lowe's and narrowly voted 18-12 to approve it.

Much of the opposition came from MovieWorld supporters who didn't want to see a thriving 35-year-old local theater ousted by a big box retailer. Despite the theater still having six years left on its lease, its managers had negotiated a contract with AAC that would allow the lease to be bought out, Patch previously reported.

Former MovieWorld employee Jasmine Frankel told the board nearly 1,400 people had signed a Change.org petition to save the theater.

"That's thousands of people that don't want to see this movie theater close," she said. "This is not the location for (Lowe's). I apologize, but it's not."

AAC Chief Operations Officer A.J. Levine told the board while he sympathized with the theater, they desperately needed Lowe's as an anchor store to keep the mall in business.

"At the end of the day, I have to keep this open," Levine said. "We've considered every option."

On June 11, MovieWorld announced via Facebook that the theater would be required to close up shop within 30 days to make way for the new Lowe's.

"It is with a heavy heart and great sadness that we must close our doors for good on July 3rd, 2018," the post read. "We are not closing for any other reason than we are being required to under the terms of our original lease."

Though happy to see the Lowe's approved, Popin said his team "still felt bad that the movie theater had to go."

"I can appreciate their years of being there, and they obviously filled a community need," he said. "I'm sorry to see them go."

Popin echoed Levine's statement that there was no other way to bring Lowe's to Douglaston Plaza and, without it, the shopping center "likely wouldn't have lasted much longer." Landing the big-box retailer, he said, has already generated renewed interest in the mall from other well-known retailers.

"It's bittersweet moment," he said.

Lead photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images.