NEW YORK CITY-Fresh off a long search for space on the Upper East Side, upscale grocer Whole Foods Market has found its match. The supermarket has signed a lease for 39,000 square feet on three floors inside 1551 Third Ave., a 30-story luxury residential tower owned by Milstein Properties. It will be the grocer’s eighth Manhattan location and the first in the neighborhood.

The new store, slated to open in 2014, will stretch along the entire block front between 87^th and 88^th Streets along the eastern edge of Third Avenue. It will occupy the first two stores and lower level of the building.

The deal marks the latest big-ticket supermarket retailer to move above East 86th Street. RKF executive vice president Gary Alterman represented the building’s owner on the long-term lease—the same broker who brought Fairway Market to the former Circuit City at 240 E. 86^th St., the area’s first supermarket in nearly 30 years.