By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
EAST VILLAGE — A new Brooklyn-based supermarket is set to open its first Manhattan outpost on Houston Street and Avenue A later this year.
Union Market, which has a trio of stores in Park Slope and Cobble Hill, plans to unveil its latest location across the river this coming fall.
The supermarket will take over a 6,000-square-foot corner space currently home to a neighborhood deli and wine shop, marking the company's largest store ever, the Lo-Down reported.
The grocer features organic, local and all-natural products, putting the emphasis on sustainability by using green energy to power its stores, according to the supermarket's website.
While this is Union Market's first foray into Manhattan, the store's founders have deep ties to the Lower East Side, with one of the partners growing up in the neighborhood and another involved in two restaurants in the area, the Lo-Down noted.
Specialty items — like cheese imported from Europe, all-natural Angus beef from Kansas City and coffee from California — reportedly include classic local offerings likes pickles from the Pickle Guys and Rick's Picks on the Lower East Side.
"The local component is crucial to understanding the whole concept of Union Market," co-founder Marko Lalic told the Lo-Down. "Besides selling local products, we are a local product. And we are constantly trying to stay on top of everything that's going on in the local food scene."
Co-founder Paul Fernandez — who owns a Met Food supermarket in NoLIta and opened another in Chelsea in late 2008 — referred questions about the new Union Market to his other partners, who did immediately return requests for comment.
At least one current store on the block, Discovery Wines, plans to relocate somewhere in the "immediate area" after its lease comes up in May, said assistant manager Ben Koenig.
"From all accounts from what I see, it looks like a good thing," he said of the changeover.
