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Special Report: CTown Supermarkets - Queens, NY (College Point)

CTown Supermarkets
Opened: September 2026
Owner: unconfirmed; possibly Manny & Robert Pena
Previous Tenants: Grand Union (open by 1966, closed between 1994 and 1996) > CVS (open by 1996, closed 2024) > Fresh Mart (2025-2026)
Cooperative: Krasdale
Location: 132-22 14th Ave, Queens, NY
Photographed: September 11, 2026
We're back here in College Point, Queens, a peninsula kind of in the northeastern part of the borough. There's a handful of supermarkets here, including a large ShopRite, but two Asian grocers had opened up just across the street from each other: a small store called Ai Mart and then a larger, more full-service supermarket called Fresh Mart in a former CVS. Neither actually made it, and both closed earlier this year. Now, the roughly 10,000 square foot Fresh Mart space has reopened as a new supermarket -- a CTown, which is still in the soft opening phase so it's mostly set up but there are a few minor things to continue working on.
Here's one that the store management warns customers about right at the entrance: Credit card sales are temporarily being routed through an existing store in Secaucus (part of a former ACME!), so I think it's likely the same people own both stores. Green Farmers Market was acquired by Manny and Robert Pena in 2025, so it's possible they own this CTown also.
The layout hasn't changed that much from Fresh Mart, which extensively renovated the former CVS space. CTown has now done extensive renovations again, but everything is mostly in the same place. A not-yet-open prepared foods department along with grab-and-go prepared foods and baked goods are up in the front-right corner with produce in the rest of the first aisle. Deli and bakery are at the back of the first aisle, with meat and seafood service counters along the rest of the back wall and packaged meats in the back-left. Dairy and frozen are on the left side, with beer in the front-left corner.
You can see compared to Fresh Mart, there's a lot more here in CTown (which is basically a full-line mainstream supermarket in a much smaller space than most big stores, like the ShopRite a couple blocks over). There's even a dedicated bakery counter, although I'm not sure they're actually baking in-store. Still, a notable feature that's excluded from so many New York City supermarkets.
It looks like some of these fixtures might be left over from Fresh Mart, but most are new. CTown appears to have kept Fresh Mart's flooring and possibly the grocery shelving, but it was all practically brand-new when Fresh Mart closed.
CTown appears to have added another aisle here at the end, separating frozen and dairy into two aisles when Fresh Mart had a larger frozen department covering this whole area. (Fresh Mart's dairy was back over on the produce side of the store.)
Beverages still being stocked up front, but the rest of the front-end looked pretty much ready to go. These are the things you'd expect from a soft opening, and with that in mind, this store looks great.
I'm interested to see if CTown can make it here with a mainstream approach where a dedicated Asian grocer couldn't. The store looks great, though, and since it's still in the process of scaling up there's still more to do. Check out this weekend's other posts here!

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