A huge new Whole Foods might be opening in west Midtown. Commercial Observer reports that the specialty grocery store is close to signing a lease for 60,000-square-feet of space at 5 Manhattan West, a residential development at Ninth Avenue and 31st Street near Hudson Yards. The grocery store would take over parts of the ground floor and a plaza level, with a build-out paid for by the landlord.
The upscale grocery chain has been tempering its ambitious expansion plans ever since sales started seeing a drop, but it apparently still sees an upside to new locations in the New York area. It recently opened a location near Bryant Park and one in Newark, New Jersey, and the outpost in Williamsburg opened just last summer. The company is also planning a version of its more budget-friendly store 365 in Fort Greene.
A new Whole Foods location is something for restaurant obsessives to watch, too. The chain has recently been prioritizing a new strategy where they bring on big name local chefs to open restaurants within the stores. The Bryant Park Whole Foods has a location of Frankies Spuntino, a well-liked Brooklyn restaurant serving Italian classics. Whole Foods in other cities have partnered with celebrity chefs like Roy Choi and Michael Solomonov. “The response has been amazing, so well so that they’re starting to be in more of our stores,” Tien Ho, the vice president of culinary and hospitality at Whole Foods, has previously told Eater.
The Manhattan West development where the Whole Foods would go recently started leases for its rental properties, according to Eater’s sister site Curbed. The Eugene is 62-stories tall and has nearly 850 apartments. Rents start at $3,200-per-month.
Eater has reached out to Whole Foods for more information. Stay tuned for more.