Whole Foods: Not the Best of Neighbors
About a month ago, we posed the following question: Is Whole Foods to blame for the sorry state of the city landmark on the grocer’s property at 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue? The answer, according to a story in today’s Daily News, is yes. The property’s owner entered into an agreement in 2005 with Whole…
About a month ago, we posed the following question: Is Whole Foods to blame for the sorry state of the city landmark on the grocer’s property at 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue? The answer, according to a story in today’s Daily News, is yes. The property’s owner entered into an agreement in 2005 with Whole Foods wherein the grocer was supposed to repair the structure, but the landmark Coignet Stone Company building has been abandoned to the elements for years as Whole Foods fails to make progress on its Gowanus supermarket. “The whole thing is a disaster,” says Richard Kowalski, the building’s owner. Kowalski planned to open an art gallery and gift store in the rehabilitated property. A Whole Foods spokesman is evasive about the supermarket’s pledge to repair the landmark. “We have not been contacted in over a year by … the owner of the building … and we have no information whatsoever regarding the owner’s plans for the building,” spokesman Fred Shank told the Daily News. Our take: Whatever benefits this Whole Foods would bring to the neighborhood and Brooklyn have been greatly overshadowed in the past year or so by the store’s lack of action in Gowanus. The fence at the abandoned toxic site has been destroyed again and again, giving the general public open-access to a potentially harmful property. At the same time, we now learn the grocer has reneged on its agreement to preserve a city landmark. Whole Foods, it’s time to s*&t or get off the Gowanus pot.
Gowanus Landmark Building Caught in Repair Dispute [NY Daily News]
3rd St. Landmark Crumbling; Is Whole Foods to Blame? [Brownstoner]
Obstacles Remain for Whole Foods [Brownstoner]
Whole Foods Fence Saga Continues [Brownstoner]
wasn’t WF aware of all this before they decided to build on the site? And can someone answer, is this site more polluted than the surrounding area? How are other nearby properties affected?
Does anyone seriously expect WF to spend $$ to repair this building before getting their permits etc. settled with the city? That would be a poor use of what leverage they have here. Whether or not you’re waiting with bated breath for the WF to open (and I’m not) – they’re a business.
Whole Foods will NEVER open here – the site is too polluted – and please expect similar delays and cancellations of all the grand plans for residential housing along the canal (Public Place, Toll, etc…)
The liability related to cleaning and living on this land is enormous….Canal-side development sounds good – until you try to build
Isn’t the problem with Whole Foods “building their thing” that the site is chock full of toxins?
seems to me the owner is a greedy sob. plus i think the city is giving a whole food problems with building their thing. let them finish already.
“doesn’t the owner have some responsibility for this?” Exactly what I’m thinking. That building has been a wreck for decades. Now the owner is pissed at WF for not fixing it for him? WTF is he doing about it other than waiting for them to do it for him?
I’m curious. doesn’t the owner have some responsibility for this? He owned the building long before his agreement with WF and it is illegal to allow a landmarked building to simply fall into disrepair from neglect.
The building doesn’t seem any better or worse than it did 10 years ago.
I wonder what Whole Foods’ carrying costs are for that site. Anyone have a ballpark guess about their monthly burn rate?