New UWS Trader Joe's Could Open Soon, Report Says

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Trader Joe's may be postponing the opening of its new Upper West Side location for the second time, but it's likely to open sometime within the next two months, neighborhood blog the West Side Rag first reported.

The new supermarket, located on Columbus Avenue between West 92nd and 93rd streets, is expected to open sometime before the first quarter of 2018 ends, a company spokesperson told the West Side Rag.

"At this time we do not have a confirmed opening date, but we are hoping to open sometime in the first quarter," the spokesperson told the blog.

Trader Joe's first announced the opening of the new Upper West Side store in March 2017. At the time, the company claimed the store would be open by the end of 2017, later pushing that back to sometime in 2018.

The store will occupy 20,000 square feet in 670 Columbus Avenue. Trader Joe's negotiated its 20,000-square-foot lease in 2016, the Real Deal reported. The store will occupy ground floor and basement retail space at the base of an existing 30-story condo, according to the report.

The Upper West Side began buzzing about the store in 2014, when tipsters informed the West Side Rag they overheard rumors that Trader Joe's was looking to open a store in the West 90s. At the time the prospects of Trader Joe's opening a second Upper West Side location when other neighborhoods hadn't gotten a first store seemed unlikely.

Photo by Michael Nagle/Getty Images News/Getty Images