This just in from Scott Simons, the marketing guy from Whole Foods Austin who is responsible for the Lakewood store progress … Whole Foods’ plan to build a new structure on the old Minyard’s site is dead. Instead, Whole Foods is planning to refurbish the existing Minyard’s building, with work beginning in a matter of weeks, according to Simons.
In a followup email, Simons indicated that the decision had nothing to do with a meeting of neighborhood representatives Wednesday night, which Simons says Whole Foods was not invited to attend; the reps were meeting with our neighborhood’s plan commissioners to discuss Whole Foods’ requested changes to the PD governing development along that section of Abrams Road. (For an archive of our complete Whole Foods coverage, click here.)
Simons says this decision "has more to do with the city planning commissioners’ reactions to our proposed building plan and the fact that we have been paying rent on the property since we took it over. We simply cannot afford to sit on the property for another six months to a year before we can begin work on the site. It is strictly a business decision."
We’ll do some more research and have a further update as soon as possible. In the meantime, here’s a copy of the note I originally received from Simons…
Rick,
I have an update for you.
As you know, we’ve been exploring many options with the former Minyard’s
site in Lakewood for some time. As site planning has proceeded, the
private and city restrictions have raised very challenging issues.
Setting out on this project, we acknowledged that we had two viable
options with this location; we could renovate the existing structure and
create a new Whole Foods Market in the existing four walls, or demolish
the current building and construct a new store on the site.
Ultimately, we decided to explore the idea of a new structure, and we
recognized that this would mean navigating the existing restrictions and
asking for neighborhood and city support on a new design that would
serve the neighborhood and allow us to run an efficient store at the
same time.
However, all current indicators, combined with our experience in
building new stores in the past, have led us to believe strongly that we
can expect a very long and complex process to acquire the Planned
Development District amendment we would need to build a new store.
After carefully evaluating our expenses to date along with the City Plan
Commissioners reactions on the design we proposed, we feel that the best
decision is to renovate the existing retail space and move forward with
opening the store in a more timely manner.
Additionally, we have heard from many community members that an
environmentally-sensitive project would be most welcome, and using the
existing structure will allow us to pursue a greener end result for the
store. We will work to make the interior finish-out of the store as
environmentally sound as possible.
This decision will allow us to start work on the site quite soon. We
will work very hard to create an amazing store experience for the
Lakewood area and have it open as soon as possible. We expect work to
begin within a matter of weeks.
Thank you,
Scott Simons, Marketing Team
Whole Foods Market Southwest
