As Predicted, Whole Foods Bailing on Gowanus Site
Ten months ago we wrote a post saying that we had it on pretty good authority that Whole Foods was never going to happen in Gowanus. Yesterday, the blog Brooklyn the Borough reported—and the Brooklyn Paper later confirmed—that this was indeed the case. Whole Foods does not have immediate plans to open in Brooklyn, company…
Ten months ago we wrote a post saying that we had it on pretty good authority that Whole Foods was never going to happen in Gowanus. Yesterday, the blog Brooklyn the Borough reported—and the Brooklyn Paper later confirmed—that this was indeed the case. Whole Foods does not have immediate plans to open in Brooklyn, company spokeswoman Mara Engel Weleck said, suggesting to The Paper that the company would sell the land. What does this mean for the future of Gowanus?
Whole Foods Bows Out [Brooklyn the Borough]
Food Megastore Abandons Gowanus Site [Brooklyn Paper]
Curtains for Whole Foods? [Brownstoner]
More Delays and Changes at Whole Foods [Brownstoner]
Photo by moriah
The irony of building a store that sells organic produce on top of a toxic waste site has always cracked me up.
But I have heard rumors that Pintchik, which owns a lot of buildings along north Flatbush, is dying to get Whole Foods as a tenant for the block where the Blockbuster is now.
Mopar, that building is landmarked. See
http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/press/06_27_06.1.pdf
Mopar: Never before seen a Trader Joe’s mistaken for Whole Foods. Heh.
Santa: You are confusing the Pippin Building with The Old American Can Factory, one of the first pre-cast concrete buildings: http://www.nyc.com/link.aspx?site=http%3a%2f%2fwww.xoprojects.com%2fplaces_oac.html
Pippin Building: http://www.callalillie.com/archives/2004/06/pippin_on_third.html
daveinbedstuy “And how long does the average superfund cleanup take?????”
I can’t believe I just read a GAO report on the Super Fund.
Answer: 10.6 years, on average.
http://www.gao.gov/archive/1998/rc98074t.pdf Page 6
Anyway, probably longer in Brooklyn but if the EPA/City had started when 4th Ave was re-zoned (~2003) we’d be at least 1/3 done by now. Gotta’ start sometime.
I’m not anti-development but I agree it makes no sense to build yuppie pads on a toxic site. And not labeling it a Super Fund site doesn’t make the bad stuff go away. EPA clean-up first, then yuppies and Whole Foods or whatever.
that building was the first building made out of cement in brooklyn. Or so I was told.
Someone stuck that fake brick shit on it at some point. Its not a house and was an office of some kind.
I believe you can go as far back as my posts in ’06 to see that I predicted this will never be a Whole Foods – and I also stick by my prediction that the land immediately around the canal will never (next 20yrs) be fit for residential development.
The area is/was a toxic dump – it can not be cleaned and made acceptable for anything approaching a reasonable cost. The area is perfect for light industry –
Whatever! Isn’t there already a Whole Foods on Atlantic near Court?
For years I have been wondering what the deal is with the house in the photo. Is there a tax lien situation? Is the owner not selling? Even if the house is nothing but a shell at this point, it could still be rehabbed and turned some “luxury” condos, I mean closets.
i’d take fairway over whole foods any day and even walk the 38 minutes to get there.
okay. maybe not walk to get there, but you get the idea…
superfund designation/cleanup is not going to do anything about sewage runoff. And that is not reason for the superfund.
It is from old industries located next to or near canal.
Some parcels are damaged like whole foods site and some others. As well as sediment on bottom of canal.
Will be decades before that cleanup is done.
Will city solve sewage runoff by then? who knows.