We had an opportunity to talk at length with a number of folks who have had some level of involvement in the Whole Foods and DC USA negotiations.  Again, we sought closure to our campaign for a Whole Foods in Columbia Heights.  We wanted to bring the final verdict to those of you who have been so hopeful for a Whole Foods in our neighborhood.  Although we did receive a lot of insight, we fell short of getting that final closure.

We apologize for the delay in providing an update on the Whole Foods situation.  We regret even more that this latest update may be the least hopeful.  The situation does not look good.  And it looks even worse when you consider who the top contender for the space maybe now...you guessed it - Ross Dress For Less.

We have not received any substantial updates on the efforts to bring Whole Foods Market to DC USA for the past several months.  All we know is that negotiations continue.  The same major sticking point remains - the inability to meet Whole Food's demand for dedicated parking.  Drew Greenwald, President of Grid Properties, recently informed us that they have not given up on Whole Foods yet but they do have, "many other exciting retailers that are also looking at the site as well."  Mr. Greenwald did not elaborate any further.

We had a chance to speak with with Drew Greenwald, President of Grid Properties, this past Friday and received some updates on the Whole Foods negotiations.  Grid Properties is the lead developer of the DC USA retail project.  Mr. Greenwald told us that the negotiations are ongoing.  The major hold up continues to be the inability to provide dedicated parking at the DC USA for Whole Foods employees and customers.  The Chairman and CEO of Whole Foods Market, John Mackey, has not granted final approval because of this reason.  Mr. Greenwald suggests that we begin directing our email campaign to Chairman Mackey.

We have just recorded the two hundredth individual who has emailed Karen Riley expressing support for bringing Whole Foods Market to Columbia Heights.  This count represents only those individuals who have copied us on their message to Ms. Riley or have written us an email notifying us that they had done so.  When we spoke with Ms. Riley back on February 10th, we were told that she had received over 300 emails.  At the time, we had only accounted for less than half that amount.  So the actual number of individuals who have written to Ms. Riley is probably closer to 400 or more.

We contacted Karen Riley, the real estate coordinator for Whole Foods Market, this past Friday to see if there were any updates on the negotiations to bring Whole Foods Market to Columbia Heights and to get a sense of what impact our email campaign is having on the decision making process.

Councilmember Jim Graham has been following the interest that this Whole Foods Market issue has generated among community members.  This morning Mr. Graham posted the following message on the Columbia Heights listserv:

The vast majority of those who have emailed us have expressed strong support for Whole Foods Market coming to the DC USA retail complex in Columbia Heights.  But our public endorsement of Whole Foods Market has caused some of you to question our motivation.  We would like to take a moment to explain where we are coming from and why we are doing this.

As we mentioned in our last post, we had some email correspondences with Robert L. Moore, the president of Development Corporation of Columbia Heights (DCCH).  Again, DCCH is one of the development partners of DC USA.  We really appreciate Mr. Moore for taking the time to provide us with some insight into this situation with bringing Whole Foods Market into the DC USA retail center.  We thank Mr. Moore for allowing us to publish his words.  First here is the email we sent to Mr. Moore last Friday, January 13, 2006:

As of this writing there has been fifty-one individuals who have emailed Karen Riley expressing support for bringing Whole Foods Market to the DC USA retail complex.  This number is based on those who have copied us on their messages to Ms. Riley or simply wrote us a message telling us that you had done so.  Thank you very much for the great response.  This is a great outcome considering that we just had a holiday weekend. 

We spoke with Karen Riley, a Real Estate Coordinator for Whole Foods Market. She is based in the Whole Foods Market corporate headquarters in Austin, Texas and is working directly with the corporate real estate team that is handling the negotiations with the DC USA developers.

According to Karen Riley, negotiations to bring Whole Foods Market to DC USA have not ended.  She did admit that the situation didn't look good.  She did confirm that the 35,000 sq. ft. that has been configured by DC USA for Whole Foods was inadequate.  She said that at a minimum, they were looking for 45,000 sq. ft.  She also noted that parking was a concern.  She understands that there is a metro station adjacent to DC USA and that many people live within walking distance.  But Whole Foods Market would still like to have at least 40-45 parking spaces dedicated to employees and customers.

The amount of retail space that DC USA is making available for Whole Foods Market is about 35,000 sq. ft., according to Marc Katz, the leasing agent from H&R Retail who is representing Whole Foods Market.  As we reported earlier, this is much less than the 60,000 sq. ft that Whole Foods Market is requiring.  If you look at the space that has been designated for Whole Foods, you can see that it has been divided into two levels.  The upper level seems to be roughly sixty percent the size of the ground level.  This would make the upper level about 13,000 sq. ft. while the ground level would be about 22,000 sq. ft. 

Because we have received so much community interest and support on this topic, we have created a new section dedicated to this matter.  Our informal poll shows that an overwhelming 96% of the community (as of 9 AM, January 12 with 126 total votes) would like to see Whole Foods in Columbia Heights.  We have also received dozens of emails in support of Whole Foods.

We spoke with Marc Katz of H & R Retail, the leasing agent representing Whole Foods Market in the DC USA negotiations.  Mr. Katz was much less encouraging about the prospects of Whole Foods coming to DC USA.

Issues 

Mr. Katz has been representing Whole Foods Market for many years and has been working on this particular case for two years.  He said that Whole Foods Market's business model has changed dramatically over the past two years.  For future locations, Whole Foods is looking to occupy much larger retail spaces than it has in the past.  In the case of DC USA, it wants a total of 60,000 sq. ft of retail space.  Unfortunately, DC USA could only configure space for 35,000 sq. ft.  For reference, the Whole Foods in Logan Circle is 37,000 sq. ft.

Whole Foods Market is still negotiating with developers to occupy retail space in the DC USA retail complex.  Whole Foods Market has not yet signed a lease agreement and are still trying to iron out some details of a possible arrangement. 

We haven't been able to reach a Whole Foods representative for comment.  However, we did speak with other parties that are invovled in the negotiations, Grid Properties, Development Corporation of Columbia Heights (DCCH),  and the leasing firm Newmark Knight Frank.  All parties were still uncertain what the outcome would be but all of them expressed optimism.  They all value Whole Foods as a very important potential tenant and are working hard to bring it to DC USA.