So… What’s the Deal With Trader Joe’s Coming to Hoboken?

By now we’ve all heard the rumor on the street that Trader Joe’s will be coming to Hoboken.

Earlier this week, a local website ran a story claiming that the store was coming to 14th & Willow—but with no real concrete evidence.

Here’s what we know…

• hMAG reached out to Trader Joe’s directly, and we got this form letter in response from Rolynn in Customer Relations:

  “While we don’t have any immediate plans to open a Trader Joe’s in your local area, I will absolutely forward this along to our real estate team. After all, customer response helps drive our expansion! One additional thing you can do is fill out a “location request form” online – those help, too. http://www.traderjoes.com/about/location-requests-form.asp
  Thank you for shopping at Trader Joe’s when you can get to one, and we hope you have a wonderful week!”

  Thanks Rolynn… you too!

• Meanwhile, the Hoboken City Council met on Wednesday, and among the 316 pages of material covered in their meeting was an item of interest on page 270, where the Council was asked to vote on a “RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ESCROW ACCOUNT WITHIN THE CITY TREASURY, IN THE INITIAL AMOUNT OF $5,000.00 FROM ADVANCE REALTY LLC, TO PAY FOR THE SERVICES OF THE CITY’S EXPERT REPORT REGARDING ADVANCE REALTY LLC’S REQUEST FOR TRAFFIC AND PARKING CHANGES ON CLINTON AND 13TH.”
  
  The details are pretty straightforward:
  “Advance Realty LLC seeks to make traffic and parking alterations to the streetways at Clinton and 13th for purposes of a proposed new grocery store at the location, and a Zoning approval has been granted for said use, but the traffic and parking alterations require additional approval of the City Council, which approval has been stayed pending the outcome of a traffic circulation and parking report from a City-approved engineering firm.”
  
  Turning to page 272, a letter from Advance Realty indicates that an escrow account is being established for the “traffic engineering expenses related to the Trader Joe’s loading and access issues on Clinton Street.”

BOOM—”Trader Joe’s.” Right there in black and white.

Looks like Rolynn was playing it a bit coy…

What does all this mean?

As of Wednesday’s council meeting, Trader Joe’s has Zoning approval to open a store in Hoboken. The store is now awaiting City Council’s approval of additional proposed changes that would impact traffic and parking.