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The wait for a Wegmans on Long Island just got a little longer.
The Rochester-based supermarket chain confirmed a Newsday report that its planned Lake Grove store — which had been initially pegged to open next year — will instead not open until early 2025.
A Wegmans spokesperson pinned the change to the construction timetable on permitting delays for work on the 100,000-square-foot store within the DSW Plaza at Lake Grove.
Demolition on the Lake Grove site began earlier this month after Wegmans secured the last of its permitting approvals, but the delays put the hope for the 2024 opening in jeopardy.
“We are currently evaluating the construction schedule to determine an opening date, but we anticipate it will be early 2025,” the spokesperson said.
Fairway Market, the last grocer supermarket in the plaza at Middle Country and Moriches roads, closed in 2016.
Wegmans planned arrival on Long Island — which follows the opening of stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan — has been highly anticipated among so-called Wegmaniacs and Lake Grove officials.
“Disneyland for adults,” one aficionado replied to a @Greater_LI video of demolition posted to X (formerly Twitter).
When the family-owned chain’s expansion to Long Island was announced in April 2022, Lake Grove’s mayor touted the “positive addition to our village” that would help boost retail in the area.
“The company has a reputation that will bring folks near and far into Lake Grove to do their shopping,” Mayor Robert Scottaline said at the time.
Wegmans operates 110 stores in eight states and has more than 53,000 employees.
The Lake Grove location will have 500 full-time and part-time positions, according to the spokesperson, who added that hiring is expected to start early in 2024.
Prior coverage
Top: Extrior of a Wegmans location. (Credit: Facebook/Wegmans)
