Is the Whole Foods site in Gowanus starting to look more abandoned? One might say, “yes.” The signs identifying the big and environmentally-challenged parcel of land on Third Street in Gowanus as belonging to Whole Food were taken down at the end of 2007. At some point more recently, however, all the permits (many of them more than a year out of date) and other signs (including the endlessly photogenic hazmat warning sign) disappeared too. Of course, there’s no evidence the grocer has abandoned the project, as opposed to the fact that it’s still lacking the proper permits to move forward. (And, often, projects look abandoned until the construction equipment shows up one day.) Still, the Whole Foods project does not an air of inevitability about it. The “groundbreaking” for the big grocery took place in November 2006; last year, Whole Foods was handing out bags at Celebrate Brooklyn that said “opening in 2008.” It would appear with the year almost half over and, given the complexity of building on the contaminated site, that even if permits were issued tomorrow and construction equipment started digging up the property, that it’s highly unlikely a store would open before 2010. Not that anyone that didn’t know could tell anymore that a store is even planned on the site.
4 responses so far ↓
1 bikeboynyc // May 28, 2008 at 9:10 pm
On the WholeFoodsMarket website they have changed the announcement to indicate a new opening date will be posted. They have not, as with other developing locations, indicated that there has been a relocation which would imply a setback.
2 FROGG // May 29, 2008 at 12:32 am
It IS time to call for a true land conservency here with wetlands restoration.
Whole Foods should consider, seriously, doing right by this piece of earth, and not build as they have proposed to do.
Development can come in all kinds of form today. To put up a building is only one, limted view of what development is all about in the 21st century.
3 Smitty // Jun 1, 2008 at 12:39 pm
We (residents) need to continue to be very concerned about any development in Gowanus. Everyone seems to forget that Gowanus is one of the oldest industrially contaminated areas in the USA, with multiple Superfund sites that have never been cleaned up. We should leave the area be, or require new developers to clean up the sites they develop on. I suspect that if they (Whole Foods included) are required to correctly clean these sites up, then it may cost them far more than they expected and are willing to pay.
The plants and vegetation on the sites have protected the area thus far, by trapping these contaminents in the soil. Do we really want to let them loose on residents for the sake of a few dollars??
4 Shield // Jun 19, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Some interesting stuff from the Department of Buildings: a partial stop work order was entered a few months ago, in March 2008, because the fence was falling down. Meanwhile, they’ve fallen many months, and in some cases years, behind on submitting all the documents they need for the project to get approved. Looks like they’ve near forgotten about this project. Or are so stymied by how to remedy a brownfield that they’ve closed their eyes and are hoping it’ll go away.