It looks great but what about Boulevard Drinks? That is a Jersey City institution.
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On Reddit someone was saying Boulevard Drinks was promised first dibs at the small retail space. I couldn’t independently verify that but it sounds believable.
According to Jersey City Times, it will be a Whole Foods mini market:
If this holds true, it is possible Whole Foods is planning to put one of its “mini” stores in Journal Square, similar to the one that opened in Hoboken in December. For the past two years the chain has been opening smaller markets to appeal to urban shoppers who make frequent trips to the grocery store, buying a few items on each trip. There are three such stores, which the company calls “Whole Foods Market Daily Shops,” in New York City, in addition to the one at 101 Washington St. in Hoboken. These mini markets have around 7,000 to 14,000 square feet. The Hoboken outpost is even smaller, with 4,851 square feet.
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Yes, that was in fact the intel I got last September about a “national supermarket chain” locating in this building–the chain I was told would be coming was Whole Foods.
Here are some more renders:
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It would be really unfortunate if they do a mini-market instead of using all 48k square feet for the store. Hopefully they combine the two spaces. Also, when I heard it would be a Whole Foods, I have to be honest I was disappointed. Would definitely prefer a Lidl or ShopRite but different strokes for different folks.
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A couple opinions:
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Just to reiterate, the base would look undoubtedly better being at least two more floors and even better if it matched the height of the JS Pub building, properly bookending the corner and obscuring its lot-line wall. As usual, just like in NY, there’s probably some counterproductive zoning formula that prevents this common sense design decision.
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Regarding the retail space allocation actually getting smaller and the ideal retail programming for the project, ideally we would see smaller retail spaces on the ground floor to retain a more dynamic street activity while placing the grocery store in the cellar with escalator/elevator access.
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15k sq ft of floor area on the ground floor is pretty small, it’s not really taking up a ton of street frontage.
I agree. Journal Square is very dense and doesn’t have much in the way of empty storefronts, especially around PATH. More ground floor retail is good. It’s also more accessible.
I’d say I’m also disappointed in a WholeFoods anything. It makes sense they wouldn’t do a full shop though. With one in downtown (+ upcoming Big ShopRite) and one in Hoboken, that would likely be an oversaturation of the local market.
Lidl and Aldi don’t do urban stores (well, they do, but it’s pretty uncommon) as far as I’m aware, but either of them would do great in JSQ. Exact right demographic. If anything it would be way too busy and chaotic if one opened there.
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What wrong with whole foods 
Y’all cried about wanting a grocery store now you crying about it not being good enough 
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Lidl has two urban stores in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn and they’re doing great in terms of foot traffic. very low prices.
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Oh wow! Didn’t know that. I was also in Chicago and saw Aldi right in downtown (technically River North).
Here’s to hoping one can open in JSQ.
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This approved by the JC planning board yesterday:
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