By James DeWeese
The Corona C-town grocery store and a neighboring dry cleaner's shop reopened Friday after extensive rehabilitation and renovations to the property that was destroyed in a January 2003 fire sparked by a faulty refrigerator in a corner candy shop.”There was a big fire that basically wiped out an entire block of stores on 111th Street and Roosevelt,” said City Councilman Hiram Monserrate (D-Corona), who witnessed the Jan. 23, 2003 blaze. “About seven businesses went up in smoke.”On Friday, Monserrate returned to the same spot to join with two of the original merchants, who reopened their shops in the heart of an area that has seen residential and commercial development grow by leaps and bounds over the past several years.”Everyone in the community is ecstatic because in that part of the district there were no supermarkets closer by,” Monserrate said. “It's the fastest growing section of the city – a supermarket was desperately needed there.” The closest supermarket is the Associated on Roosevelt near 103rd Street, almost eight blocks away. Neighboring Jackson Heights has one supermarket for every 4,753 people, according to Census and Yellow Pages data. Corona by comparison has one for every 5,814 people. “I think it's great for the community,” C-town owner Nancy Diaz said on opening day. She and her husband, Arcadio Diaz, have run the C-Town at 111th Street and Roosevelt Avenue for more than 20 years. Arcadio was too busy amid the well-stocked shelves to be interviewed, and business was bustling. Diaz said she expected even more shoppers as word of the grocery store's reopening spread.Next door at the Corona Dry Cleaners, owners Kunho and Maria Song were also too busy to talk Monday. Like the Diazes, they were getting back into the swing of things after almost two years of waiting for the landlord to rebuild and reopen the property, which Nancy Diaz said now includes six units of residential housing in an attached building.The Diazes turned the fire's devastation into an opportunity to revamp and upgrade their decades-old operation, nearly doubling its size by expanding into space once occupied by other stores that shared the building. The store's sparkling aisles are well-stocked, a full-service deli offers high-quality meats and all four cashier lanes are fully staffed at all times.The store's makeover seems to have pleased customers who, along with some returning employees, had been anxiously awaiting the grand reopening.”I always come here,” said neighborhood resident Ana Paulina, 50, as she moved swiftly through the check-out line. “It's good and pretty – God bless them.”If Paulina was excited to see the old grocery made new again, so too were Ramon Valerio, 67, and Isidro Collado, 70, who were helping bag groceries Monday. Valerio, a Corona native, was once a manager at the store and decided to help his friends the Diazes out when they reopened. Collado was also making a return appearance at the store where he worked before the fire.”I recognize a lot of the people,” he said of the customers. Collado's is just one of more than 30 jobs the grocery store has brought back to the area.For the Diazes, the C-Town supermarket is a family affair. In addition to Nancy and Arcadio, the couple's son, Sean, 24, helps manage the store full time. And on Monday as shoppers continued to crowd the aisles, their other son Andrew, a 20-year-old marketing student home on winter break from Sienna College near Albany used his vacation to pitch in.”My dad, he's been working non-stop since the store opened,” Andrew said Monday. “So that's why my brother and I are sort of taking over today, handling all the shipments and everything just so he can get a couple hours of sleep.” The elder Diaz was still scheduled to make an appearance later in the day.Things may stay busy for the Diaz family. Corona's booming housing and commercial market has made it one of the most rapidly growing areas in the city, Monserrate said. That could mean more customers.”I hope so,” Diaz said.Reach reporter James DeWeese by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 157.
