BREAKING: Gowanus Whole Foods Confirmed!
After months and years of uncertainty (mostly relating to environmental issues), Whole Foods has officially decided to go ahead with its plans to build its first Brooklyn store at the corner of 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue in Gowanus. At 52,000 square feet, the new store will be about 25% smaller than the one initially…
After months and years of uncertainty (mostly relating to environmental issues), Whole Foods has officially decided to go ahead with its plans to build its first Brooklyn store at the corner of 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue in Gowanus. At 52,000 square feet, the new store will be about 25% smaller than the one initially spec’d for the site; it will also include a 40-foot public esplanade (presumably along the canal) and a 20,000-square-foot greenhouse on the roof. Here’s the emailing confirming it sent out a couple of hours ago by Mark Mobley of Whole Foods to Craig Hammerman, the District Manager of Community Board 6:
I am writing with some extremely positive news: Whole Foods Market is now officially moving forward with the development of our first ever Brooklyn store located on our property at 3rd Avenue and 3rd Street! We want to thank you and the entire community for your patience as we’ve worked to revise our plans and clean up the property. We’re also proud to have finalized a development plan and are confident that Whole Foods Market will be a terrific addition to the neighborhood.
While we will be happy to set up a meeting and/or provide you with more detailed information in the coming weeks about the proposed store and our plans, we wanted to share this good news and provide a brief overview of our intentions as soon as possible. Our commitment to Brooklyn and our desire to invest in the greater Gowanus community are stronger than ever, and as we hope you will see, our new development plan is extremely responsive to the surrounding neighborhood and its residents….
…Our property, which was formerly home to a number of auto repair shops, warehouses and other industrial uses, has now been fully cleaned and remediated under the strict guidelines of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s brownfield program and is ready to return to a positive, productive, job-creating and community service use.
Our planned new store will be approx. 52,000 square feet, which is about 25% smaller than the store we had previously proposed for this site. We believe this site plan – which continues to feature a 40 foot public esplanade for our neighbors to enjoy – will simply work better within the parameters of the property.
We have reduced the number of parking spaces on-site from 430 to 248, which eliminates our previous need for a separate parking structure and allows all of the parking to be at-grade in a surface parking lot. The store will feature parking for both energy efficient vehicles as well as specially designated recharging stations for electric powered vehicles. The lot will also include bike parking in front of the store and along the promenade. Whole Foods Market will also offer delivery for area residents.
With parking now no longer needed on the store roof either, we have been presented with the opportunity to include one of the most exciting and innovative features ever included in a Whole Foods Market: A 20,000 square foot greenhouse located on the roof of the store that will grow fresh, organic produce right on-site!
Rather than construct the store below-grade as previously proposed, we now plan to build it above-grade, which will require a variance from the Board of Standards and Appeals due to the physical hardships associated with site development (there is a high water table and, as you know, environmental cleanup requirements on the property). These factors have a large impact on the development costs that will be encountered on this site.
As always planned, the two-story, 19th century brick building situated at the property’s corner at Third Avenue and Third Street – which is not owned by Whole Foods Market – will remain in place. The Whole Foods Market will “jog” around the existing building at that corner and Whole Foods has committed to investing in improvements to the building that will include a new roof and exterior repairs.
Finally, you should know that our commitment to local hiring, community investment and the creation of high-quality Whole Foods Market jobs (with excellent benefits) remains unchanged. This new store will create approx. 350 new jobs – fully 70% of which are expected to be full-time positions – and we look forward to working with you and other local stakeholders to ensure that the surrounding community has full access to these new opportunities.
As we hope you can see, we are extremely excited about the opportunity to finally provide Brooklyn residents with convenient access to their own Whole Foods Market. We believe we have developed a plan that is responsive to the surrounding community and look forward to sharing additional details with you in the coming weeks. Thank you and I look forward to speaking with you soon.
Psyched?
Set Backs at Whole Foods Site [Brownstoner]
Signs Point to Whole Foods Brownfield Cleanup Starting [Brownstoner]
Nothing Doing at Whole Foods Site [Brownstoner]
Photo by Nathan Kensinger
This IS good news. 3rd St. and 3rd Avenue isn’t so far from the nexus of 5th Ave and 3rd St.
Don’t people like having a grocery store near where they live? Or course they do. The advantage of these places is the meat departments and vegetable departments. Everything else you can get anywhere; quality meat is hard to find.
Also, what are you people buying at Whole Foods? My grocery bill there isn’t any higher than my bill at the associated down the block from me. Some products are actually cheaper at Whole Foods than regular grocery stores.
It amazes me how many people will criticize Whole Foods and instead seem to prefer the contaminated wasteland of a site which has sat there up until the present day.
Whole Foods has taken a completely undesirable parcel of land, cleaned it up on their own and now will open what sounds like a very innovative store with a greenhouse to grow fresh produce….a first of its kind for the chain, I believe.
And yet here are the frownstoners, hating as they always do.
If you think Whole Foods is more expensive than say…Key Foods….you need to check again. Whole Foods has incredible sales which rival any of the other grocery stores. You just need to be a competent, smart shopper. I think MANY Park Slopers will walk down the hill for this, and then have it delivered (it specifically states in the press release that they will be offering delivery).
Pretty sure if Fairway was able to succeed in the completely out of the way location, then this will do just fine.
Happy to see they scaled back the parking lot. If you hate parking lots, I hope you don’t shop at the Key Foods on 5th Avenue.
” but it’s shocking how few ever got a clue about stocking more organic fruits and vegetables”
Those organic fruits and veggies that have to be shipped all the way from California.
I am still skeptical but if they actually can open here it will be a huge positive step in bridging the divide between Smith St/Carroll Gardens and Lower Park Slope/5th Ave.
Sounds great to me, I hope they start construction soon. I live in Red Hook, and will probably never go there, but it means that Park Slopers will stop crowding Fairway and shop at Whole Foods instead. They offer great quality and service, but at a price too dear for me.
I’m perfectly happy to have a Whole Foods in the neighborhood as an option, even though it’s a bit pricey. But I don’t love the idea of another big box store in Gowanus with a big surface parking lot that people will drive to from other neighborhoods. It seems like a step toward suburbanization. It would be nice if this was closer to transit options – a bus or van system running along 3rd st., for example, could make this easily accessible to people in the slope and Carroll Gardens without requiring them to drive.
That said, it seems like they’ve offered up just about every reasonable compromise you could ask for, so.. ok. Maybe one day the area will be developed and served by transit enough that they can get rid of the parking lot. In the meantime, a greenhouse on the roof? In Gowanus? Ridiculous, but kinda awesome.
Beyond the store itself, just cleaning up that block will be great for the neighborhood. I hope they finally restore the building on the corner in the process. It’s been so painful to watch it fall into deeper and deeper disreapir. (Now if the Staples corner of 4th Ave and 3rd St could only spruce up too!)
Steve’s C-Town on 9th Street in Park Slope is great… I think it has great quality produce and it’s one of the very few places I’ll actually purchase meat and poultry in this town. The prices are high-ish, but this is compared to outside of the city. For Brooklyn, Steve’s is right in line… in other words, I can actually afford to shop there UNLIKE Whole Foods.
Why o’ Why can’t ALL supermarkets be like Steve’s C-Town?
No, I don’t work there 🙂 I’m just not skeeved out by that place like MOST supermarkets in this city.