Trader Joe's is finally making it official: the beloved grocery chain plans to open its third Denver store in 2027, landing in the Central Park neighborhood at the site of the former Shops at Northfield. Construction is already underway, though the company has not announced a specific opening date.
According to The Denver Post, the new store is expected at 8564 E. Northfield Blvd., near the Avenues at Northfield mall — though an earlier Denver Post report from June pegged the address a few doors down, at 8560 E. Northfield Blvd., so the exact street number remains a bit fuzzy. What's not in dispute is the neighborhood: this will be Trader Joe's third Denver location, joining its existing stores at 750 N. Colorado Blvd. and 661 Logan St.
Those two existing Denver stores sit in the Congress Park/Hale area and Capitol Hill, respectively, according to Denverite. As for how many Colorado locations the chain operates overall, sources disagree: the Denver Post counts nine stores across eight Colorado cities — Boulder, Colorado Springs, Denver, Fort Collins, Greenwood Village, Littleton, Parker and Westminster — while What Now Denver puts the current total at eight locations statewide. Either way, Denver7 reports the new Central Park store will become Trader Joe's tenth location in the state once it opens.
Construction Already Visible at Avenues at Northfield
Site work on the new store has progressed enough that the building has “gone vertical,” per What Now Denver's report on the project, meaning the structure's frame is now visible from the street. The grocery store will measure roughly 12,500 square feet and come with 153 parking spaces, and it will sit next to the Old Navy at the Avenues at Northfield, the outlet notes.
That retail corridor used to be known as The Shops at Northfield before a rebrand and revitalization effort renamed it the Avenues at Northfield, a change the Denver Post first detailed back in June. The broader redevelopment isn't just about groceries, either — plans call for 216 market-rate and affordable apartments on what is currently a parking lot at the site, per the same What Now Denver report. The property owner had told the Denver Post in June that it expected construction on the Trader Joe's building itself to wrap by the end of 2026, though no opening date has followed that timeline.
Plans for the Northfield store have actually been in the works since 2024, according to the Denver Business Journal, but Trader Joe's had never publicly confirmed the project until now. The timing lines up with other grocery activity in the area — a Whole Foods is also planned for the Central Park neighborhood on the other side of I-70, according to BusinessDen.
A Separate Platt Park Proposal Has Stalled
Trader Joe's has also been eyeing a second new Denver-area site entirely, in the Platt Park neighborhood. The company announced in 2025 plans to occupy ground-floor retail space in a five-story apartment building at the northwest corner of South Pearl Street and East Louisiana Avenue, according to the Denver Post. Denverite reported that Trader Joe's filed an application in late April 2025 to conduct business at 567 E. Louisiana Ave. as part of that plan.
But that Platt Park project appears to have hit a snag. Permitting processes appear to have stalled, according to What Now Denver's reporting, leaving the status of that second proposed location unclear for now. The Central Park store, by contrast, has visible steel going up and a confirmed 2027 target.
Elsewhere on Denver's Food and Drink Radar
Trader Joe's isn't the only name generating buzz on Denver's dining scene this week. Westword reports that Sicilia, an Italian takeout concept, is heading to 1140 Bannock St. between Olive & Finch and Schoolyard Beer Garden, with pastas and pizzas served in a self-order, grab-and-go format and a community tasting event teased for November. Over in Cherry Creek North, Sushi 37 — operated by SYC Concepts, which also opened Blossom by SYC in Highland and another Miya Moon franchise in Hamden — is slated to open on November 11 with fresh sushi, izakaya dishes and an upstairs omakase room.
Other openings on the horizon per Westword's roundup include a third Popup Bagels location in the DTC, described as a “grip, rip, dip” bagel chain, alongside a second DTC-area Barcelona Wine Bar. A 7Brew drive-thru is eyeing a November opening on West Mineral Avenue in Littleton, joining a Colorado In-N-Out and Costco in the same development. And Somdee Signature, an upscale spinoff of Somdee Thai Kitchen, is considering a potential March 2027 opening on Larimer Square, according to owner Orrapan Botthaisong.
