Whole Foods in Utah

I'm glad they're going ahead with the plan as scheduled. A little weirded out but glad just the same. Whole Foods is a good company and people will want to shop there. Customers have been turning up in droves at Trolley Square since the shooting and I think it's good we don't hide.

Plus I really, really, really like Whole Foods.

Count on Whole Foods in new Trolley Square
By Lesley Mitchell
The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 02/22/2007 01:41:45 PM MST

Posted: 1:42 PM- Trolley Square owners said Thursday their shopping center will still get Utah's first Whole Foods store - even though the specialty grocer now plans to acquire rival chain Wild Oats and a Salt Lake City store just a couple of blocks away.

Whole Foods Market Inc. said it will pay $565 million for Wild Oats Markets Inc. and its stores in the United States and Canada.

The Wild Oats store in the downtown area, one of four in Utah, is located at 645 E. 400 South. The Whole Foods is set to be built on the northeast corner of Trolley Square, 600 S. 700 East.

But Tom Bard, principal at Trolley owner ScanlanKemperBard Companies said he isn't worried.

"They have a lease with our property," Bard said. "It will be interesting to see what they are going to do with the other store."

Bard said construction is set to begin later this year on the 50,000 square foot Whole Foods store at Trolley.

But first, Trolley will begin a renovation of the core shopping area of the mall. Work is more or less proceeding on schedule despite the tragedy of Feb. 12, when 18-year-old Sulejman Talovic went on a rampage and shot nine people in and around Trolley Square, killing five of them.

Bard said renovation of the mall probably will be completed in early November, in time for the holiday shopping season.

The mall will be open the entire time it is being renovated, he said, with most of the work being done at night. Work on a new parking structure will begin probably around April. After that structure is completed, work can begin on the Whole Foods store, which will be built in an area that is now largely a surface parking lot.

Whole Foods spokeswoman Cathy Cochran-Lewis said because the Whole Foods-Wild Oats deal is subject to regulatory approval, it is too soon to comment what it may do in areas where there are Whole Foods and Wild Oats stores in close proximity. It also is unclear if, or when, the Wild Oats stores would be converted to the Whole Foods banner.