Is a Trader Joe’s coming to Sugar House?

The past twelve months have seen a swirl of excited rumors regarding Trader Joe’s activity in Utah. The most recently confirmed location in the Beehive state was the Draper store back in 2022. The addition of the South valley location however didn’t quell fervent rumors. Fans continued to speculate about the potential for expansion within the popular Sugar House area; Brickyard was a popular location as the rumor mill went. Company representatives at the time would not be drawn on further growth plans beyond the Draper site.

Well, this seems like news to me. A building permit filed yesterday lists 2160 S 700 E in Salt Lake City as “Trader Joe’s, IN PRESCREENING/// Converting location to a Trader Joe’s grocery store.” The address on the filing locates a potential store along 700 East – coming to the strip mall that’s also home to the venerable Dee’s restaurant.

As best as I can tell, the company has yet to confirm any of this in an official capacity – so let’s all take a beat – this is just one guy trawling through online building permit filings. Trader Joe’s official coming soon page does not list Sugar House at this time. As ever, watch this space until we hear full and formal confirmation. If proved to be true, this would be the fifth location for the store in Utah, joining the downtown SLC, Cottonwood Heights, Draper and Orem.

This particular part of the Salt Lake valley continues to see constant growth and reinvigoration – so wouldn’t be entirely unexpected. As I reported on just this week In-N-Out are coming just down the road in neighboring South Salt Lake, while the core of 2100 South looks set for major road reconstruction in 2024.

Thanks as ever to Building Salt Lake for access to their permit search system that helps unearth info like this! Featured image credit Chris Samuels – The Salt Lake Tribune per our content sharing agreement.

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Stuart Melling

Hi, I’m Stuart, nice to meet you!  I’m the founder, writer and wrangler at Gastronomic SLC.  I’m a multiple-award winning journalist and have written in myopic detail about the Salt Lake City  dining scene for the better part of seventeen years.

I’ve worked extensively with multiple local publications from Visit Salt Lake to Salt Lake Magazine, not least helped to consult on national TV.   Pause those credits, yep, that’s me! I’m also a former restaurant critic of more than five years, working for the Salt Lake Tribune.    I’m largely fueled by a critical obsession with rice, alliteration and the use of big words I don’t understand.   What they’re saying about me: “Not inaccurate”, “I thought he was older”, “I don’t share his feelings”.

Want to know more? This is why I am the way I am.