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
I agree with jackal. Don’t see how nimby is the cause of the demise here. It is hard to make the business plan work when cleaning up all that toxicity is part of the cost. I also didn’t see that there was much real organized nimby activity. This one might not have made it even if the bubble kept inflating. Just because some people oppose a project and the project fails doesn’t mean the opposition cuased the failure. Correlation is not causation.
Whole Foods is the Wal-Mart of grocery stores.
Toxic waste isn’t like violence and bad schools. It simply can’t be changed by gentrification. It doesn’t matter how many yuppies move into new condos in Gowanus – they will still be living on top of a whole lot of toxic waste. Thus Gowanus will simply never gentrify. Gowanus is a perfectly fine place for some auto shops and live music venues. And that’s how it will stay. The few people who were convinced that this is the new ground floor opportunity in NYC real estate… well, I’m sorry to be this blunt, but they are just fools. Do you really think that once the cleanup of the canal begins – and as a result public exposure of the environmental issues increases dramatically – this is going to have a *positive* effect on values in Gowanus? People aren’t going to think “oh good, it’s getting cleaned up, so it’s safe to buy.” They’re going to think “holy shit! I don’t want to live in the middle of a toxic waste dump!”
You can make money buying in areas where human displacement can by itself affect values. You cannot do so in areas where human displacement will have no effect on the underlying value drag.
I say go to chinatown for vegetables. Much much cheaper.
Walk home and save the subway fare and on groceries.
Uh, Mr. Joist, gowanus and redhook are next to one another — 8 minutes by car between the two addresses (see link below) is a few blocks in my book. 30 minutes walking – if you walk your supermarket groceries, in which case you better LIVE on Gowanus for Whole Foods to be convenient — is not bad either.
Anyway, the point being, if you’ve got whole foods and fairway 8 minutes apart, Fairway’s gonna win. Unless you’re really rich and love those green bags.
Whole Foods has tasteless produce — it might be consistent but only cause it’s all bland. Fairway gets local stuff and if it does spoil it’s because it’s not loaded with preservatives (hence the flavor).
Bottom line is, if your neighborhood needs “cache” from the likes of a megastore like Whole Foods, that megastore probably won’t want to be in your neighborhood. Whole Foods was a pioneer once, a long long time ago. Now they open a store at Houston and Bowery — the trendiest, most overpriced part of downtown Manhattan — and consider it “edgy”.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=360+3rd+Avenue,+Brooklyn,+ny&daddr=480+van+brunt+st,+brooklyn,+ny&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=40.675252,-74.016201&sspn=0.007974,0.012167&g=480+van+brunt+st,+brooklyn,+ny&ie=UTF8&z=14
Fairway is in Red Hook, hardly a “few blocks away.”
Any way you cut it, this is not good news for the re-development of Gowanus. Yes, there are a ton of bars and hotels and arts spaces opening but this would have given the area a jump-start and cachet. I just hope they can get the Superfund cleanup done in the next decade (is 5 years too optimistic?) so growth can resume.
Guess the nimby’s got what they wanted … No big parking lot … Just an empty toxic lot!
Fairway is good for some things but as far as fruit and veg go they are inconsistent – lots of rotten stuff around, and not cheaper. Whole Foods has them beat by a mile.
I think fairway, which is only a few blocks away, has got the area covered for high end supermarket shopping. Whole Foods is way too upscale for brooklyn anyway, where most people tend to be on the thriftier end of the wallet.
I love that mansion in the photo though. Were they really gonna demo it? Or is it still standing because it’s landmarked?
Jiff or Skippy…late at night on Wonder Bread with a chocolate milk shake and potato chips. Yes, it can be found at any bodega. Always creamy, never crunchy. Never polluted with jelly. There’s an old saying “Don’t gild the lily.”