Rob AriasThe mysterious grocery store at Bay Street has finally been officially announced by CenterCal Properties after years of speculation.
“We are excited to finally announce that Tokyo Central, a popular Japan-based grocer is coming to Bay Street Emeryville,” they shared through their social media channels.
Tokyo Central offers a wide variety of premium imported Japanese goods such as groceries, made-to-order and ready-to-go food, health products and many other specialty items.
Founded as “Marukai” in 1965, they were among the first international grocery chains to enter the U.S. market. This will be their second Bay Area location joining a Cupertino location. They have several locations in Southern California.
The “buzz“ in recent days was that German-based grocery chain Aldi might be moving in. This was fueled by a flurry of job postings within Emeryville.
A reader pointed out several job postings in #Emeryville for German-based Grocery chain @AldiUSA? Could this be the mysterious Bay Street Grocery Store we’ve all been trying to guess? pic.twitter.com/zcDmAImWMd
— The E’ville Eye News (@TheEvilleEye) August 13, 2024
Bay Street originally announced plans for a grocery tenant at the shopping center back in 2021. CenterCal admitted in an interview with The SF Business Times that Tokyo Central was not the original planned tenant indicating that Amazon Fresh may have been the original tenant as previously thought before the chain halted expansion plans.
Either way, Emeryville residents will be thrilled that the space will not remain vacant as the former New Seasons Market space did for several years.
The Bay Street Press Release unveils additional details about the opening including the fact that the grocery store will include an upscale, in-house sushi restaurant run by Tokyo Central.
Bay Street noted a timeline for them opening as 2025.
Whether or not an Aldi might also be coming to Emeryville is uncertain but we’ve inquired with the city for any permitting applications or other public records.
Feature Image: CenterCal Properties
That’s an interesting development, sounds like possibly worth the wait. Gotta say Center Cal has done a surprisingly good job livening up Bay Street — it’s busier there than I’ve seen in many years. I’ve never been to that store, but it seems like the Cupertino place is pretty well-liked, and having decent takeout sushi nearby (that hopefully doesn’t break the bank like the Public Market place does) will be a nice addition.
Very interesting! Regarding the Aldi job announcement, I’m guessing that is related to the Trader Joe’s store in Emeryville since Aldi is the corporate owner of TJ’s.
Thanks for pointing this out. The connection between Aldi & Trader Joe’s has always been a bit mysterious but maybe they are finally making this more public.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/owns-trader-joe-153500582.html?soc_src=yahooapp&guccounter=1
Wow. Strikes me as a major letdown versus all the other speculated grocery tenants. Not a place I will be making any special plans to shop at.
I actually disagree – we have a TJ’s, Pak n Save, Berkeley Bowl, and Target nearby. I’m not sure whether an Aldi or Amazon Fresh would have offered anything significantly different from the existing options. Tokyo Central would offer something that Emeryville currently doesn’t have.
Same. There’s nothing like this that I know of nearby except for Tokyo Fish Market in Berkeley north of E’ville. The only other option I might have been more excited about is a giant new Emeryville Bowl. Of course, BB West and BB East are so close to Emeryville that it would be unjustifiable.
This could not have turned out any better! Super excited to have a high quality Japanese grocery store in the neighborhood. CenterCal has been doing such an impressive job with the bay street revitalization.
Best possible outcome!
YAY!