By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER EAST SIDE — Owners of Fairway Market said Wednesday that the last piece of the puzzle before signing a lease in the Upper East Side is permission from the Department of Transportation to hold extended loading zone hours.
The extra hours would allow the supermarket to stagger truck deliveries during Second Avenue subway construction as it shares the loading zone in front of the proposed site at 240 East 86th Street with other businesses, said Howard Glickerberg, CEO of Fairway.
Community Board 8 voted to support Fairway's request at a transportation committee hearing Wednesday.
"The Second Avenue subway stuck its nose in," Glickerberg said.
"I'm just afraid that if everyone has a loading at the same time, there will be a lot of congestion," he said.
Once construction of the subway begins, the MTA plans to use part of the loading zone in front of the supermarket for businesses that have lost curbside access.
Glickerberg is requesting the DOT extend Fairway's loading hours from between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week.
The grocery store also requested that the loading zone be stretched from 100 feet to 150 feet during the estimated three-year Second Avenue subway construction.
Residents from the neighborhood turned out to encourage the board to support the store at the meeting.
"I would like you to find a way to make it possible for them to sign a lease," said Kathleen Luba, a resident at East 87th Street and Second Avenue.
"We need Fairway," Luba said.
The East 86th Street Merchants/Residents Association, however, opposed the board's bid to support Fairway's request, saying the longer hours were unnecessary and that the market would likely clog up the sidewalk with produce and boxes.
Glickerberg assured the board that the lease has tight restrictions on loading as well as keeping the sidewalk clear.
