Trader Joe's will open in a location in the space formerly occupied by Food Emporium, which closed in January. View Full Caption DNAInfo/Noah Hurowitz

KIPS BAY — The east side will get its very own Trader Joe’s, with a branch of the grocery-and-fancy-snacks purveyor set to open next year in the former Kips Bay Food Emporium's location, which closed down in January.

A spokeswoman for the grocery-and-snack chain confirmed to DNAinfo New York that the new store will open at 32nd Street and Third Avenue in the fall of 2016, following months of speculation by locals about what would take the place of the shuttered Food Emporium.

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The news came as a delight to neighbors of the store, which will be tucked into the ground floor level of The Future, a 35-story condominium building at the corner of Third Avenue and 32nd Street.

“I couldn’t be more happy that a Trader Joe’s is moving into the neighborhood,” said Lauren Pohl, who lives around the corner from its future site.

The closing of the Food Emporium, part of a city-wide downsizing, did not hit the neighborhood too hard thanks to a still-open Gristedes across the street. But the new store will give Kips Bay residents easy access to the kinds of goods for which they currently must trek to Chelsea or Union Square.

“Having it nearby is great, and I think the choices are more unique than your average grocery store,” Pohl said.