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July 10, 2009

Whole Foods Gowanus May Not Be Dead After All

Check out the response from Whole Foods to the Brooklyn Paper's story this week...apparently the high-end grocery chain has not definitely wiped its hands of it. Click here for prior Brownstoner coverage and click through for the memo...

TO: Craig Hammerman

FROM: Mark Mobley
Whole Foods Market

DATE: July 10, 2009

RE: Update on Whole Foods Market's plan in Brooklyn - "Reports
of our demise have been greatly exaggerated"

I am writing with just a quick update to let you know that recent reports
of Whole Foods Market's demise in Brooklyn seem to have been greatly
exaggerated! As you may have seen, the Brooklyn Paper published a story
this week that inaccurately suggests we have definitively decided not to
pursue the development of a store on our property at 3rd Street and 3rd
Avenue and further that we are planning to sell the property. This is
simply not true and we have sent a letter to the Brooklyn Paper editor
clarifying our position and requesting a correction.

You may recall that last Fall I sent you a memo explaining that Whole
Foods Market had begun re-evaluating our plans for our property and that
we would be working to identify potential development partners for a
Brooklyn store. That is exactly what we have been doing in recent months
and we are continuing these efforts in hopes of arriving at a potential
development scenario that will enable us to finally come to Brooklyn .

Therefore, while nothing has yet been finalized and we are still not in a
position to be able to share any additional information, please be assured
that we will be back in touch as soon as we are able to provide more
details about our plans.

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Comments

Whole Foods Market here -- I'm Libba, and I can attest to the information above. We ARE continuing to pursue plans for a future store at the Gowanus site in Brooklyn, contrary to multiple media reports earlier this week. Our spokesperson’s statement that we have “no immediate plans” to open a store DOES NOT mean that we are not actively progressing towards plans for development. Since the fall, we have been working to identify potential development partners for a Brooklyn store. The plans aren’t final yet, but we’ll be sure to let everyone know when there’s more to report. As most people understand, this is a complicated process, but rest assured that we are committed to Brooklyn, and we look forward to bringing our products and services to this community.

Posted by: Whole Foods Market at July 10, 2009 3:51 PM

Please wake me up when it's open.

Posted by: Biff Champion at July 10, 2009 3:57 PM

Our spokesperson’s statement that we have “no immediate plans” to open a store DOES NOT mean that we are not actively progressing towards plans for development.

STFU!!!!!!

The What

Someday this war is gonna end...

Posted by: Return of The What at July 10, 2009 4:07 PM

par for the brooklyn papers reporting.

maybe they will do better in holland where they seem to have sent the whole reporting crew.

thats gotta be more interesting than whole foods.

Posted by: bkn4life at July 10, 2009 4:12 PM

Hey the war will end when your dead...you are a ASSHOLE!

Posted by: janko at July 10, 2009 4:15 PM

I'd be more inclined to believe this if Whole Foods could explain what the hell "working to identify potential development partners," and how that differs from the company's original plan.

Posted by: basementalist at July 10, 2009 4:22 PM

Basement mentalist, I think maybe it means "we don't have the money to do it on our own and need a sugar daddy to jump start the clean-up/construction process -- especially since it is a clean up and development that would benefit the entire neighborhood(s), so why should WE be footing the ENTIRE BILL, when guys like Ratner get everything on the taxpayers' dime?" That's my guess anyway.

Posted by: iz at July 10, 2009 4:35 PM

Return of the what-if,where you be.

Posted by: janko at July 10, 2009 4:36 PM

Wait - i thought Gowanus was going to be cleaned up and it was going to be some condofilled riverfront utopia?

Posted by: dirty_hipster at July 10, 2009 4:43 PM

This is why Brooklyn is finished. It takes a decade to build a simple free standing grocery store and parking lot on a piece of land that has been vacant since not longer after World War II ended. Hitler, the favorite historical figure of many brownstoner readers, conquered most of the European continent in three years. We in Brooklyn, a county with a population 5% that of Germany in 1939, can't even build a grocery store in five years!

Posted by: Polemicist at July 10, 2009 4:58 PM

Whole_Foods_Market, you have to take the What with a grain of salt. Organic French Sea Salt @ $20 the ounce, naturally.

Now where's Benson when we need him to complain about low journalistic standards?

Posted by: denton at July 10, 2009 4:59 PM

Pole....when I agree with you, I strongly agree.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 10, 2009 5:05 PM

Whole Foods person... Here's a new location currently looking for a tenant. Big commercial lot on Seventh Ave between 19th and 20th Streets. Easy accessible to your delivery trucks... Prospect Expressway ramp right there for shoppers...

Posted by: IMBY at July 10, 2009 5:22 PM

I'll add a 'strongly agree' w/ Pole & daveinbedsty but 2 friendly amendments and one four letter food for thought (had to do it):

1) It's larger than Brooklyn and Gowanus. We've gotten to the point where transparency itself is polarizing. The process becomes a siren song: "all those willing to throw any baby out with the bath water, please identify yourself and step forward immediately."

2) no one mentions this four letter food for thought: JOBS.

Posted by: brooklyndoug at July 10, 2009 7:17 PM

Sit back and relax because this will be a long posting.
Whole foods is being disingenuous. The way a developer develops property like this is either on spec with their own money(non existent in the current economic situation) or with a loan from a venture capitalist also non existent. The other way is to sign a lease with a credit worthy client go to a lending source with that lease and loan money based on the cash flow from the lease. In the later case this directly relies on the credit worthiness of the prime tenant. When Whole foods decided not to develop this property itself, it has to put its own credit worthiness on the line. Everyone is gun shy about that kind of creditworthiness. Look what happened to Linen N Things and the electronics company that just went out of business. They have left lenders holding literally hundreds of relatively new and onetime quite creditworthy properties throughout the country. These sites will have to be adsorbed before a new round of lending for retail stores take place. The one exception is retailers that can afford to bankroll these developments themselves(Walmart can and BJ's can- very few others can)...so when Whole Foods said no we won't do it ourselves it doomed this project for a large number of years if not forever.

Posted by: smeyer418 at July 10, 2009 8:32 PM

Ikea did this themselves in RedHook and Fairway used its creditworthiness before the market changes...

oh BTW how I know this I was VP for Admin and real estate at Korvettes department stores.....

Posted by: smeyer418 at July 10, 2009 8:35 PM

"oh BTW how I know this I was VP for Admin and real estate at Korvettes department stores....."

And we know what happened to Korvettes, right?
:-)

They did have a helluva music dept tho.

Posted by: denton at July 10, 2009 10:32 PM

yep Korvettes made a basic error on how it leased the property because the owners Arlen realty took money out based on these leases(because of a down market in NY realty). There is a whole book about what happened to Korvettes. Retail is a tough business. It seems that about every 25-30 years we go through the same cycle again. So at some time in the future the whole lending market will be changed again....The down cycle tends to last about 5 years...

Posted by: smeyer418 at July 11, 2009 7:21 AM

Here is what the WFM actually means in their statement:

"We are very eager to bring our overpriced products to Brooklyn and to suck your money out of your pocket and destroy all the small local stores that have been in the neighborhood for decades and profit from all of this as we usually do, but do you really think we are crazy enough to invest millions into an area that is to be potentially declared a Superfund site soon?"

Posted by: supereks at July 11, 2009 12:51 PM

The truth is that a Times Square Stores is hooking up with a John's Bargain Store as well as a Bargaintowm USA. Better yet, Fortunoffs, Kleins, and Alexanders are looking into some commercial lots as well. For the hungry shopper, an Automat will be opening. Ah, the streets of New York are littered with the retail carcasses of yesterday. Whole Foods - join the rest.

Posted by: sjtmd at July 11, 2009 6:08 PM

Whole Foods is coming! Hurray! I'm hungry now.

Oh, they are coming in an unspecified amount of time. . . .

I'll go to Trader Joe's.

Posted by: EdNorton at July 11, 2009 10:23 PM

So, WHOLE PAYCHECK is coming to Brooklyn to pry our wages out and send 'em to corporate headquarters. Why don't some enterprising individual(s) set up shop here in Brooklyn and use the skill and ingenuity of local New York State (and City!) organic farmers where possible, and sell good food that is not the rip-off that Whole Foods certainly is (not that their products are not good). This would keep profits local and also help the environment by keeping Whole Foods' trucks hauling cross country (and crosstown).

Posted by: Epiphany at July 12, 2009 3:19 PM

If WF is still talking about opening at this location, then what's the deal with 470 Vanderbilt (@Fulton)? That location is so much more centrally located and near all the Atlantic/Pacific subways whereas the Gowanus location is going to compete with Fairway for all those who have access to a car.

Posted by: dokas at July 13, 2009 9:04 AM

> progressing towards plans...

In other words, the project is dead, dead, dead in the water.

Posted by: DitmasSnark at July 13, 2009 2:05 PM

« Development Watch: 2 Lefferts Place Gets Windows Closing Bell: Beef Jerky Time! »

July 10, 2009

Whole Foods Gowanus May Not Be Dead After All

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