NEW YORK – After years of flirting with Manhattan, the bull’s-eye has landed in East Harlem.

Target’s first store on the New York island officially opens Sunday — with merchandise tailored to the neighborhood, including Spanish-language greeting cards, multicultural dolls, religious candles and renowned Southern food produced locally. It’s a key step in the discounter’s push into urban markets to fuel its growth.

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The East Harlem Target store opens Sunday and is projected to do $90 million in sales the first year. The Associated Press

“This is the (company’s) largest single investment on any single project,” John Griffith, executive vice president of property development for Target Corp., said during a press tour Wednesday.

Griffith expects the new store to produce Target’s strongest return — eventually — and to land among the top five revenue generators of its 1,700 stores. The store is projected to generate $90 million in the first year; a typical suburban store does about $25 million in the first year, he said.

The new Target joins a Costco wholesale club, a Best Buy electronics emporium and other stores at the East River Plaza on East 117th Street, about a 15-minute walk from the nearest subway stop.

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