There’s been little action at the Whole Foods site on Third Street and Third Avenue during the past few months, but now workers are in the process of demolishing a vacant warehouse at 190 Third Street. The building is the next-to-last remaining structure Whole Foods needs to level before it has its entire 2.1-acre footprint, which stretches to the east side of the Gowanus Canal, clear. What’s not clear, however, is the status of environmental clean up on the toxically challenged parcel, or when actual building is slated to begin. Whole Foods previously claimed the 68,000-square-foot store would open in spring 2008, but the supermarket’s website presently has a vague opening date to be announced attached to the store description. When we asked how you felt about the grocer’s impending arrival in Brooklyn a couple months ago, the majority of respondents were looking forward to it, albeit with some reservations about the scale and environmental impact. It’ll be interesting to see if public enthusiasm starts to wane if the project gets bogged down for too long.
Poll: People Generally Psyched For Whole Foods [Brownstoner] GMAP
Whole Foods Facing an Uphill Battle in Gowanus [Brownstoner]