Drugstore Opens At The Andrea

Correction, June 22: We mistakenly gave the wrong cross streets for the newly-opened CVS at The Andrea. It located at the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Ashland Place. 

A neighborhood that in the past has been described as a "food desert," finally has an oasis.

CVS opened up this week at The Andrea on Myrtle Avenue and Ashland Place, making it the first retail space to debut in what developers promised would be a much-needed shopping destination for nearby Walt Whitman and Ingersoll Houses.

Billionaire investor and Gristedes owner John Catsimatidis own both the nine-story residential building and the grocery store in its basement, Red Apple supermarket.

In April, around 100 residents criticized representatives of Catsimatidis' development company for to an Associated Supermarket that was bulldozed to make way for an apartment building. 

Five years later, residents are still waiting for a market within walking distance to get fresh fruits, vegetables and other goods — a need that a drugstore like CVS seemed unlikely to fill.

Still, the opening of much-needed retail outpost in this underserved area north and west of Fort Greene Park was welcomed by at least one CVS shopper.

"It's convenient," said Danielle Wright, a downtown Brooklyn office worker running errands Monday afternoon. "And that's all I need right now in this heat."