Trader Joe's Coming to Essex Crossing in Lower East Side

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — The Lower East Side's Essex Crossing will get a new Trader Joe's in mid-2018, the grocery franchise announced Tuesday. The new store will open in the lower level of site 5 at the corner of Clinton and Grand streets in the massive Essex Crossing development, a new project of nine sites on six acres that have been vacant since 1967.

"Trader Joe's will be a welcome amenity to Lower East Side residents," Community Board 3 Chair Jamie Rogers said in a statement. "It is an affordable, high quality neighborhood grocery store that meets the CB3's Guiding Principles for Essex Crossing of providing a diversity of goods at diverse price points. Previous reports of attempts to have Trader Joe's expand within Community Board 3 were met with enthusiasm by the community. They will be very happy to hear that we have a firm commitment of Trader Joe's at Essex Crossing."

The building where TJ's will go, at 145 Clinton St., will also have a Planet Fitness on the second floor, according to city permits. Essex Crossing in general is set to provide the neighborhood with a movie theater (14 screens), a bowling alley, a new medical center from NYU Langone, and an upscale food market.

Trader Joe's just opened a location in Kips Bay, Manhattan in August and is set to open another location in City Point, Brooklyn sometime in 2017, according to the store's website. TJ's has six other locations in the New York City area.

Residents of the Lower East Side can expect a Trader Joe's flyer in the mail periodically after the Essex Crossing location opens, which will highlight new products in what the grocery franchise says is a "Mad Magazine" tone.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Trader Joe's