Aldi Signs Lease for 25K-SF Grocery Store in Hell’s Kitchen

Germany-based grocery chain Aldi is coming to Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.

Aldi, which opened nearly 120 stores in the United States in 2024, has signed a lease for 25,000 square feet at the base of The Ellery, Taconic Partners and National Real Estate Advisors’ new 32-story luxury residential tower at 312 West 43rd Street, according to ownership.

The deal represents Aldi’s first location in central Manhattan, as the grocery chain has one store in East Harlem at 517 East 117th Street and several other outposts in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, according to its website. Its new Hell’s Kitchen store is set to open next year.

“Opening our first store in the heart of Manhattan will be a significant milestone for Aldi as we continue to expand access to affordable, quality groceries in the most in-demand locations across the country,” Chris Daniels, a regional vice president at Aldi, said in a statement. “This location will allow us to provide New Yorkers with a simpler, quicker and more enjoyable shopping experience with great products at the lowest prices, every day.”

The length of the lease and asking rent were unclear, but a report from CBRE found that retail rents in Manhattan averaged $670 per square foot during the second quarter of 2025.

Ripco Real Estate’s Esther Bukai brokered the deal for the tenant, while CBRE’s Lon Rubackin, Michael Kadosh and Bevan Cohen represented ownership. Spokespeople for Ripco and CBRE did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The 350,000-square-foot Ellery, which features 330 residential units, achieved a full lease-up in May after launching last year, according to New York YIMBY.

The residential tower near Times Square features more than 30,000 square feet of amenities, including a rooftop pool, private gardens, spa areas, a fitness center and coworking space, according to Taconic’s website.

Following the Aldi lease, The Ellery still has 19,000 square feet of remaining retail space, which is “ideal” for experiential users, neighborhood retailers or food and beverage tenants, Taconic said.

“The Aldi flagship location at The Ellery marks a major milestone in the transformation of the Times Square area into a premier residential destination,” George Tsapelas, the senior vice president at Taconic, said in a statement. “Aldi is an ideal neighborhood partner, offering the West Side a much-needed grocery store that will resonate with our residents and the community.”

News of the deal comes after the New York City Council voted last week to adopt Mayor Eric Adams’s Midtown South mixed-use rezoning plan, which could create 9,700 new apartments across 42 blocks through ground-up development and office-to-residential conversions in the same area as The Ellery, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

Several conversions are already underway in Midtown.

In Times Square, SL Green Realty, along with Apollo Global Management and RXR, is working on a project to convert the 38-story office tower at 5 Times Square into a mixed-use development with as many as 1,250 housing units, CO reported.

That isn’t SL Green’s only conversion project in Midtown. In May, the landlord filed plans to convert the 34-story office building at 750 Third Avenue into 680 residential units.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.