The Board of Standards and Appeals voted unanimously moments ago to grant Whole Foods Market a variance to build its long-planned supermarket in Gowanus on 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue. The store has been in the works for 8 years, and the variance request represented the company’s last regulatory hurdle to building its first supermarket in Brooklyn. The BSA’s decision follows years of will-they-or-won’t-they uncertainty about Whole Foods’ designs on the formerly industrial property, which the company cleaned and remediated. In recent months there has been some opposition to the project from people who live and work nearby on the grounds that the supermarket might drive small businesses out of the area. The store will be 56,000 square feet and we’re guessing the grocer is looking to start building soon! When asked how soon Whole Foods would get shovels in the ground, a rep said, “as soon as possible.”


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. Most of the Whole Foods in Manhattan have residential above (as does Red Hook Fairway)- I would say the simple and easiest reason for this location is that the area is not zoned for residential (and getting to be so would require far different and more expensive brownfield cleanup and testing, not to mention even more opposition)

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