Whole Foods coming to South Charlotte

Grocerying speculated on its twitter page last year that Whole Foods would open a location in South Charlotte at Ardrey Kell Road and Providence Road.  Fast forward half a year, and the organic an natural foods supermarket has announced it will open a 40,000 square foot store off of Providence Road in a new development called Waverly, just south of Interstate 485.

This will be the third Whole Foods Market in the Charlotte area, after the SouthPark location adjacent to Phillips Place, and a new location going into a soon to be former Food Lion in Huntersville, next to Birkdale Village.

The Providence Road Whole Foods Market is set to open in 2016.

Whole Foods Market plans new North Carolina store

Whole Foods Market announced their latest round of store openings this week.  Of all the stores announced, the North Carolina location is the only store that doesn't have a city listed yet.  According to the grocer, the city won't be announced just yet leaving the speculation to be open-ended.  Currently, Whole Foods Market has store locations in the following cities in NC: One location in Asheville, Cary, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro, Wilmington and Winston-Salem, and two locations in Raleigh.  Whole Foods is continuing their expansion into mid-sized cities, as a Columbia, SC location is opened recently.

With that said, what are your thoughts? Do you believe that Whole Foods' next NC location will be in a suburban location of Charlotte such as Ballantyne or Lake Norman, or will another mid-sized city like Fayetteville or Greenville be landing a Whole Foods? Leave a comment below!

Charlotte's Whole Foods set to open August 29

The highly anticipated opening of Charlotte's first Whole Foods Market store is August 29th, just in time for the Democratic National Convention.  The store is located off of Fairview Road, near SouthPark Mall and next to Phillips Place shopping center.  It will feature an underground parking garage and a cart escalator.

Local competition includes the flagship Harris Teeter store, the Earth Fare store at Morrison, and The Fresh Market at Strawberry Hill.  Other recent Whole Foods Markets that have opened in North Carolina include a Greensboro store in April and a Wilmington store in June.

Greensboro's Whole Foods sets opening date; Winston-Salem to get Trader Joe's

Greensboro's long-awaited Whole Foods Market is set to open soon. Finishing touches are being put on the store, which is in part of the Sears building at Friendly Center. The 34,000 square foot store takes up half of the lower-level footprint of Sears' department store. The store will open on April 12th.

Above: Trader Joe's Winston-Salem store rendering

Above: Trader Joe's Greensboro store rendering

On the other end of the Triad, Winston-Salem is gearing up for a Trader Joe's. The store will locate in approximately 13,000 square feet of the former Borders Bookstore at Thruway Center, and is scheduled to open sometime later this year. This will be Trader Joe's first store in the Triad, and perhaps the most sought-after specialty grocery store in the region too. The news of Trader Joe's comes amid opposition regarding a rezoning at a potential Greensboro location.

Trader Joe's Winston-Salem rendering via Triad Business Journal/Thomas H. Hughes architecture
Trader Joe's Greensboro rendering via Greensboro News & Record/Regency Centers

Transformation continues at Greensboro's Sears and Whole Foods Market

Sears at Friendly Center with new embellishments and a new logo masking the old facade on the Pembroke Avenue side.

Whole Foods' front on the Kathleen Avenue side continues to take shape.

Previously, we showed you pictures of how Greensboro's Sears department store is downsizing their foot print at their building (which they own) and leasing half of the bottom lower level to Whole Foods Market at Friendly Center. The building, which retained a lot of its brutalist 1970s elements for a long time, is still in the process of undergoing a drastic transformation. Whole Foods Market is still scheduled to open sometime in Spring 2012, along with the new Charlotte store as well.

The Sears portion of Friendly Center has been recast as 'Sears Plaza,' sporting the new logo. It should also be noted this Sears store is perhaps one of the first in the country, if not the first, to have the new logo. The entire process of this transformation is quite unique, as you don't see a 1970s department store downsize everyday to accommodate an upmarket grocer. Whole Foods is reaping the benefits of a prime location and Sears' woes.

September:

Up Close

October: Mysterious brick columns start to take shape in front of Sears, and a new second entrance has been carved out as well. We also get a glimpse inside Whole Foods' gutted interior.

November: Work continues to transform Sears in time for the shopping season:
December: The new Sears logo is displayed and awnings continue to go up around Whole Foods.

The Sears Auto Center still displays their old logo.

Columbia set for Whole Foods Market in 2012

Whole Foods Market is continuing its Carolina expansion, this time planning a store in South Carolina's capital city Columbia. South Carolina already has two Whole Foods stores in Charleston (Mt. Pleasant) and Greenville.

The Columbia store is set to open in the Fall of 2012 by renovating and expanding the former Kroger at Cross Hill Shopping Center off of Fort Jackson Road near Devine Street. Its location places it in between The University of South Carolina and adjoining neighborhoods, and Fort Jackson. The Kroger opened in 1968 according to tax records.

Wilmington, Greensboro and Charlotte each have a Whole Foods Market that is currently in the works.

Image via Edens & Avant.

Sears conversion to Whole Foods begins in Greensboro

Greensboro's Whole Foods Market, which is scheduled to open in the Spring of 2012, has already began to take shape. The store will occupy 34,000 square feet in the Sears building at Friendly Center while Sears is downsizing its footprint from approximately 164,000 square feet to 130,000 square feet. These photos display the Friendly Avenue entrance to Sears, which will become transformed into Whole Foods' main entrance.


The two images below show Sears' Pembroke Road entrance, which will serve as their main entrance. In the picture immediately below, upon entering the doors the wall on the left will be the partition between Sears and Whole Foods Market.

Whole Foods continues NC expansion into Wilmington

Whole Foods Market will open a store in Wilmington, N.C. in 2012. Both The Greater Wilmington Business Journal and WECT-TV report that the former Lowes Foods on Oleander Drive near Independence Mall has been selected as the site for the future Whole Foods. Sources say the store should open by late 2012 or early 2013. This opening would mark Whole Foods' 10th store in North Carolina. According to tax records, the size of the current building is 47,332 square feet. The Lowes Foods Store originally was a Hannaford's which opened in 1998. Prior to that it was the site of a Wilson's Grocery Store.

Ariel Image Courtesy Bing Maps.

Preview Raleigh's New Whole Foods Market

As Charlotte and Greensboro wait for their Whole Foods Markets to open next year, Raleigh's brand new Whole Foods is set to open next week. This store is unique in the sense that it is the first store in North Carolina to open as a Whole Foods Market. The other stores in the the state opened as Wellspring Grocery, which Whole Foods later bought out (aside from the Asheville store which opened as a Greenlife Grocery). Additionally, the North Raleigh Whole Foods is being touted as the 'greenest' Whole Foods store in the southeast. The new store is 40,000 square feet, about 12,000 square feet larger than the central Raleigh Whole Foods on Wade Avenue. Read more and see more photos, including interior shots, on Sue Stock's blog from Raleigh's News & Observer at Taking Stock.

Photo courtesy Sue Stock at the Raleigh News & Observer

Whole Foods coming to Charlotte and Greensboro

Whole Foods Market sent an unexpected shocker through the grocery world, especially for North Carolina's retail scene. The leading chain of natural and organic grocery stores announced plans for a 42,000 square foot store in Charlotte and a 34,000 square foot store in Greensboro. Both stores are scheduled to open in 2012.

Charlotte
Last year, Grocerying published an article called "Will Charlotte ever get a Whole Foods Market?" Needless to say, this is the most popular post on the blog, garnering opinionated comments and conjecture as to why Whole Foods still did not have a Charlotte location. Now Whole Foods Market is set to build a store in the SouthPark area near Philips Place Shopping Center. The new development will be called Ashley Park, on the site of the Allen Tate property and part of the former Live Oak public housing. The store, once opened, is poised to be a major draw for the region. People have commented that they've driven to stores in Greenville, South Carolina and Winston-Salem to get their Whole Foods fix. The store will be 42,000 square feet, somewhat smaller than the original Whole Foods proposed for Charlotte, which was 55,000 square feet. The store will include an underground parking garage.

Greensboro
The Greensboro store will occupy part of the current Sears store at Friendly Center. Sears at Friendly Center has been open since 1973, with no exterior remodel since its opening. It currently is the largest store in the shopping center, occupying 163,941 square feet, according to tax records. Interestingly, Sears will be reconfigured so that Whole Foods' exterior faces Pembroke Avenue. The store will be smaller than the Charlotte store, at 34,000 square feet, but larger than the other Whole Foods Market in the Triad, which is in Winston-Salem. It will be interesting to see if Sears and Whole Foods develop a synergy and see cross-shoppers. The idea of Whole Foods taking space in Sears, and having Sears reconfigure, seems like a green and efficient idea rather than building a brand new store.

Location Location Location
Although the announcement of both stores may come as a surprise, their respective locations are not as surprising. SouthPark in Charlotte and Friendly Center in Greensboro are the prime upscale shopping destinations in these cities, so it makes sense that Whole Foods would go great lengths to put stores in these retail districts. In addition, all the other current Whole Foods Markets in North Carolina are open as a result of buyout of Wellspring Markets (or Greenlife Grocery in Asheville). So these locations were predetermined by their previous owner, not Whole Foods Markets. The only other new planned Whole Foods store in the state is coming to North Raleigh next year. Charlotte's store is located down the street from competition Earth Fare and the flagship Harris Teeter store. Other specialty markets in the area include The Fresh Market, Dean & Deluca and Reid's Fine Foods. In Greensboro, Friendly Center is home to Harris Teeter's largest store in the region, just a stones throw from where Sears is and Whole Foods will be.

Impact
The impact of Whole Foods Market will be interesting. In Greensboro, Whole Foods has been only a 30-minute drive away, not terribly far. In Charlotte, many fans of the store have been on a roller coaster of wondering if the store will come or not. With announcements of a 2004 store in Elizabeth and 2006 store in another part of SouthPark falling through, people were left hanging and without any answers. The speculation continued and spurred grassroots efforts through the internet to lure the store to the Queen City. Looks like it worked... and for those of you speculating that Whole Foods Market would not locate in the "home turf" of another supermarket (Harris Teeter/Charlotte; Fresh Market/Greensboro), these announcements may just debunk that theory.

Changes Coming to North Raleigh's Grocerying Scene

To begin, above is the rendering for Northern Wake County's new Whole Foods store. This store will be located at the southeast corner of Strickland and Six Forks roads at Collonade Center Drive. The rendering is from the grassroots committee website BringWholeFoods.org and the developer, Regency Centers. According to the website, their aim is to bring a Whole Foods store to North Raleigh that would serve the affluent and expanding population of this area. Perhaps the most alarming news out of this situation, still, is that Whole Foods is planning on bringing a fifth store to the Triangle region, while Charlotte has zero. We will keep all readers updated on the progress of this store, and read more about it at Bring Whole Foods.

Moving on, the Raleigh News & Observer is reporting that the Trader Joe's slated for North Raleigh has been delayed but is still set to open in 2009, just not the spring. This Trader Joe's location was announced in November 2007, and is slated to open a store in the Holly Park Shopping Center, located at Wake Forest Road and I-440. Holly Park is owned by Charlotte developer Lat Purser and Associates, and they also own 2 other shopping centers with Trader Joe's in North Carolina-- The Shops at Piper Glen and The Arbors on Mallard Creek. The new Trader Joe's in Raleigh will encompass 13,000 square feet (typical size for a Trader Joe's) and it will be the first store in Raleigh city limits. There are two other Trader Joe's in the Triangle already, one in Cary and one in Chapel Hill. Holly Park is one of the oldest shopping centers in Raleigh, and its redevelopment and recasting is a welcome sight to area residents, many of whom are elated that a Trader Joe's will anchor.

Finally, many residents of the North Hills area of Raleigh are excited as a two-story grocery store will open at the North Hills East redevelopment called St. Albans. It will be a relocation of the current Harris Teeter at Lassiter Mill, and the new store will encompass 48,200 square feet. The Triangle Business Jounral reported this story last year, and the store is set to open in late 2009. The developer, Kane Realty Corporation, has provided a site plan here.

In a tough economy, growth and expansion is a welcomed sight and it would be a delight to see all of these projects pull through and reach their full potential, but it is not a big surprise to see this development in the fastest growing metro area in the country. Know of any other changes to North Raleigh's grocerying scene? Leave us comments and lets us know!

Will Charlotte ever get a Whole Foods Market?

(Above, Whole Foods' original proposed rendering for store in Charlotte's Elizbaeth neighborhood)

November 2010 Update: Charlotte is scheduled to get a Whole Foods Market in 2012. Read more about it here.

Original story:

In 2004, Charlotteans who'd been long-hoping for a Whole Foods to land in Charlotte were delighted to hear that Grubb Properties' Elizabeth Avenue redevelopment project would include the area's first store, at the corner of Hawthorne Lane and Elizabeth Avenue. However, this never happened and at this point Fresh Market will occupy at least part of that space. Regardless, Charlotteans that wanted a Whole Foods weren't entirely disheartened because the chain had announced a second location in SouthPark, directly across the street from Morocroft Harris Teeter and the Morrison Earth Fare on the site of the Colony Apartments.

On last check though, both Charlotte locations have disappeared from Whole Foods' Stores in Development section. The demographics in Charlotte are definitely prime for a Whole Foods Market, especially considering if at one point the grocer wanted to put two stores in town. But the underlying issue keeps us and our readers questioning the store and wondering why there isn't one in town as there seem to be many viable locations and options for them to open a store.

(Above: Whole Foods locations across the Carolinas)

Whole Foods Market does have other store locations in North Carolina: Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill and Winston-Salem. All of these stores were previously a grocery store called Wellspring, which Whole Foods later took over. Additionally they have stores in Greenville and Mount Pleasant (Charleston) in South Carolina. It leaves us to beg the question is Whole Foods waiting to find the "perfect" location or are there greater forces at work to leave this black whole in Charlotte.

(Store photos via WholeFoods.com, Whole Foods Elizabeth Rendering via Little Architecture)