Whole Foods Facing an Uphill Battle in Gowanus
It’s been a tough slog for Whole Foods in Brooklyn already and the organic grocery giant hasn’t even started construction on the 68,000-square-foot market it wants to build at the corner of 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue in Gowanus. The store, which will include 37,000-square-feet of underground retail space, can built as-of-right (once the environmental…
It’s been a tough slog for Whole Foods in Brooklyn already and the organic grocery giant hasn’t even started construction on the 68,000-square-foot market it wants to build at the corner of 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue in Gowanus. The store, which will include 37,000-square-feet of underground retail space, can built as-of-right (once the environmental clean-up is complete), so no approval from community groups is required; that doesn’t mean there’s been a lack opinions voiced. “They’ve wrapped themselves in the cloak of being green and organic, but they’re certainly not acting that way,” said Eric McClure, campaign coordinator of Park Slope Neighbors. “Their talk is not matching their walk.” Another local group, Green Roof Brooklyn, says it supports the arrival of Whole Foods in general but wants to company to cut about 140 parking spaces and add a green roof to help ease pollution in the area. A third group, Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus, is critical of how the environmental stage of the project has been going, claiming that the process is pushing benzene and other contaminants into the underground water supply. Whole Foods paints the naysayers as a small minority of the thousands of residents who will be served by the store. We’re curious to know how the Brownstoner community feels about this one. Take this quick poll to let us know. Update: As of about 2:15 today, 120 people have taken the poll. The results so far? Over half of respondents say that they are “psyched for the Whole Foods plan as is and think the critics should shut up and get out of the way” while about one third say they “welcome the idea of an upscale market in the area but have concerns about the environmental impact of the project.”
Whole Foods Meets Opposition in Brooklyn [Austin Statesman] GMAP
Whole Foods Poll [Survey Monkey]
Photo by leahlb
12:35: that’s a joke, right? I wouldn’t know which stores carry those items because I’m a vegetarian, but if Whole Foods carries Foie Gras, they should give up trying to pretend they are green. Not that it harms the environment per se, but last time I checked, torturing geese isn’t isn’t too enviro friendly.
The WF site has been industrial for, what 150 years or so?
Groundwater? We in the rest of Brooklyn get ours from the Catskills, does anyone in Gowanus use groundwater from a backyard well?
What’s so wrong with a company cleaning up a brownfield and putting it to better use, and employing people from the city to staff it when it’s done?
And folks should get off their unrealistic high horses. People will drive to this Whole Foods from a wide swath of Brooklyn, to work or to shop.
P.S. some have written that the co-op is not only a club but in fact it’s a cult.
FYI the corner building at 3rd and 3rd will be refurbished, not torn down.
Get with the program, you bunch of AJ Soprano-like whiners.
Redirect the fight against something really stupid, like Atlantic Yards in its current form.
I have yet to read ANYTHING from ANY community-based organization flatly opposing the construction of a Whole Foods market in Gowanus. Can any of the posters making this accusation point me to such a statement? No — what community-based groups are doing is holding Whole Foods accountable on environmental issues.
I find it astonishing that anyone would object to demanding that Whole Foods properly & safely clean up the brown field they are going to be building on. Why wouldn’t you want that?
The posts claiming that the Park Slope Food Coop is somehow the force behind groups expressing concern about the development of the Whole Foods site are truly off the wall. The PSFC is a thriving community institution of over 30 years standing, where you can buy organic for the same price or less than what you’ll pay for non-organic anywhere else. The opening of the high-end/organic grocery store Union Market 1/2 block away from the Coop has not impacted PSFC in the slightest, nor has Fairway. Whole Foods is just as over-priced as Union Market. I don’t think PSFC is going to suffer.
Why would anyone want to stop this store from opening? People aren’t going to go out and buy a car because Whole Foods is just too far to walk to. I mean, get a grip people. If you don’t like Whole Foods, shop elsewhere.
Well, Whole Foods stock price has been taking a serious beating lately. Their equity rating is in the toilette and the cost of new stores coming on line has destroyed their bottom line.
Community opponents just need to increase the store’s opening and WF might abandoned the site.
Most food co-op people are for the Whole Foods. Membership levels are currently too high as it is, and huge numbers of the wealthiest will undoubtedly leave the co-op to go to whole foods instead.
AS for Anon 12:51 – The Food Co-op already purchases energy credits. A green roof would be nice, but it is not usually feasible to modify and existing building, especially one that is rather small.
How come the co op on Union does not have a green roof? And those trucks delivering their food is polluting the hood, hey the food coop should have their food delivered by horse. and recycle the horse crap while your at it and all the methane created by manure is heating up the planet, we are doomed
The typical reason for opposing parking spaces is the belief that they will induce vehicular traffic. However, there is another side of the coin: lack of adequate parking will result in drivers circling around looking for on-street parking spaces, thus creating even more traffic. Clearly Whole Foods’ business model for this location anticipates many patrons from outside the immediate neighborhood (similar to Fairway) so people will be driving there in any event. It is better that there be a place for them to park when they get there. I wonder if behind some of the protests is not the Co-op which probably would not be affected much but rather Fairway, which stands to be a great deal.
All that said, I do support a green roof and/or some other form of on-site stormwater detention, as well as a responsible environmental cleanup, and maybe the opposition will help achieve that.
Surprise, surprise, the mighty FROGG is against the project. Oooh, that’ll kill it. Why don’t they just rename the group Coalition to Keep Gowanus Sleazy and Abandoned? Or Neighbors Aligned to Bring Back the Early Twentieth Century? If Whole Foods can clean it up enough to open a grocery, great; if not, too bad; but what in God’s name is so bad about trying to clean up a toxic dump?
I’m a co-op member and will shop there, albeit only occasionally. As for driving, hey, whatever they can do to make it pedestrian-friendly is fine by me. But give me a break–any Brooklyn car driver making an occasional short drive to shop is having FAR less impact on the environment than any suburbanite. Talk about the narcissism of small differences.
BTW, Brownstoner, all due respect, your survey choices are kind of silly. The pro- and anti- choices both make the respondent sound unhinged.