The Lower East Side Is Getting a Trader Joe’s

A Trader Joe’s is coming to the Lower East Side. How very unsurprising!

The new Joe’s, set to debut in 2018, will open in the forthcoming Essex Crossing, a massive complex spanning 1.9 million square feet between Delancey Street and Essex Street. This is good news for anyone tired of squandering their pretty years in the endless, labyrinthine line perpetually winding around the Union Square location, but probably bad news for the local vendors forced to compete with the California chain’s formidable and reasonably-priced selection of produce.

Naturally, the New York Economic Development Corporation, which is overseeing the Essex Crossing project, is positively delighted with itself.

“Bringing Trader Joe’s to Essex Crossing will help provide families across the Lower East Side with quality, fresh food options in their neighborhood,” NYCEDC President Maria Torres-Springer said in a statement. “Increasing food access is yet another way the Essex Crossing project meets the needs of current and future residents, ensuring that this long-anticipated project strengthens the Lower East Side community as a whole.”

The new store will be located at 145 Clinton Street, and while it’s unclear what its exact square footage will be, 30,000 feet have been set aside in the basement of the complex. In addition to the Union Square location, the store also has three other outposts in Manhattan, with a second Upper West Side location forthcoming.

The TJ’s will also share a building with a 22,000 square foot Planet Fitness. Though Essex Crossing isn’t expected to be totally complete until 2024, the first phase will include a fourteen-screen Regal movie theater and a Splitsville Luxury Lanes bowling alley, an NYU medical center and a new space for the Essex Street Market.