Kips Bay Target Will Open After Weeks Of Delays, Company Says

KIPS BAY, NY — After nearly three weeks of delays, Target's latest outpost in Kips Bay will open Friday, a company spokeswoman said.

Manhattan's fifth Target in Kips Bay will open Friday at 7 a.m., Target spokeswoman Jacqueline DeBuse confirmed.

Neighbors have been anticipating the new Target since last year.

The Target was expected to open Sunday, April 7 at 512 Second Ave. between 28th and 29th streets.

But opening day, customers were turned away, some wrote on Twitter.

One Twitter user tweeted photographs of a fully lit store stocked with perishable foods.

Target was waiting "final approvals," DeBuse said, though she would not detail what approvals the company was waiting on at the time. Perishables that could be donated were donated to the New York City Food Bank, DeBuse said.

The 21,000-square-foot shop is the fifth "small-format" store in Manhattan — a smaller version of its typical sprawling suburban locations. The store will employee some 80 people.

The Kips Bay neighborhood has been anticipating the store for months — a stark comparison to the East Village, where neighbors were irked when Target put up a fake awning on grand opening day with the letters "TRGT" that appeared similar to the former punk music club CBGB's logo. The company later apologized.

Kips Bay neighbor Casey Wright and her roommate had been anticipating the opening since signs went up in the storefront, she told Patch by email earlier this month. They live a block from the new location, and Wright often treks to the Flatiron District or Herald Square for items she hopes to shop for at the future Target.

The two "have been both disappointed and confused by the delay," she said.

"In my opinion, if you give a specific date that you're going to open, you should be 100% sure that you can make that happen otherwise you're going to lose credibility with the community before you've even started," said Wright, a non-profit marketing manager who has lived in Kips Bay since 2015."Regardless of the cause, it's not a good look for them."