Pardon Me For Asking: Whole Foods Coming To Gowanus After All

Whole Food To Proceed With Gowanus Store

Today's big neighborhood news is that Whole Foods is moving forward with their Gowanus Store at Third Street/ Third Avenue. The Whole Foods project has seen little action since 2006, when the national organic food purveyor announced that it was planning to build an approximately 77,000 square foot footprint commercial building housing a supermarket, along with a total of 414 parking spaces, including a 3 level parking garage.The store was tentatively supposed to open in 2008.
However, the 2.15 acre site on the Gowanus Canal has been contaminated with a plethora of industrial waste from a former coal yard, a petroleum oil company and a freight company. The site was remediated under the Brownfield Clean-up program in early 2010.
The project came to a stop once more when the Environmental Protection Agency declared the Gowanus Canal a Superfund site.
Today, the announcement came that the store would move forward after all, although with some changes.

From an email by Paul Nelson of Assemblywoman Joan Millman's Office:

It will be 25% smaller (52,000 sq. ft), with 50% less on-site parking (230 parking spots), and the roof with be a 20,000 sq. ft. greenhouse that will grow fresh, organic produce for the store. The building will no longer be built below-grade, which addresses a number of issues, including potential flooding and the now-remediated site. The reduction in parking eliminates the 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.

There are no details on when construction will be begin or when the store will open. As soon as I get that information, I'll pass it on.

To read more about the announcement, head on over to:

Breaking: Gowanus Whole Foods Confirmed! (Brownstoner)