This past Saturday, July 15th, Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato (D-Rockaway Park) welcomed new owners Mazzone Hardware, to the space formerly occupied by Brown’s Hardware. Brown’s was a longtime Rockaway Peninsula institution that was irreparably damaged by Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Mazzone, meanwhile, has a well-established store on Court Street in downtown Brooklyn; the Rockaway store will be their second location.

“This is a great development,” said Pheffer Amato, who helped inaugurate Mazzone for its Grand Opening. “Mazzone’s management team has really been working closely with Liz Hanna and all the folks who built Brown’s into the community centerpiece it was. They wanted to make sure they were creating the best possible hardware store for this community. That’s really the ideal – helping bring back our economy not just by doing business here, but by understanding us and becoming a deliberate part of the community. We wish them much appreciation and success, and can I just say how relieved I am to be getting my next hammer on Beach 116th instead of driving across a bridge to Home Depot?”