New Hell's Kitchen Target Days Away From Opening

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — A Target store that has been in the works for nearly four years is finally set to open this month in Hell's Kitchen.

The store at 615 10th Ave., between 44th and 45th streets, will open on Sunday, Oct. 25, the company said this week.

Since 2016, Target has planned to open a store in the Tenth Avenue location that was once home to a Hess gas station and is now the site of an 92-unit condominium development, slated to open sometime this year.

Target's 29,000-square-foot space will house one of its smaller-scale stores, which the company calls "flexible format" and has opened in a number of cities across the country.

Two other Target stores, on the Upper West Side and Staten Island, are also opening Oct. 25, and the three locations will create more than 350 jobs, the company says. Target has fared better than most retailers during the pandemic, reporting revenue growth and planning to open more than two dozen new stores before the end of the year, The Real Deal reported.

The company's arrival may also trigger fears that Hell's Kitchen is becoming less accommodating to small businesses, who are being increasingly replaced by big-box corporate chains, according to some neighborhood advocates.

This week, a Patch survey found nearly 60 vacant storefronts along a stretch of Ninth Avenue. Midtown State Sen. Brad Hoylman called the trend troubling, saying that "We can't let our storefronts and restaurants be swallowed whole by the Amazons and Wal-Marts of the world."