Columbia Heights News - Washington, DC - More On Whole Foods Market

Help Bring Whole Foods Market To Columbia Heights!

Would you like Whole Foods Market to come to Columbia Heights? You can join our campaign to bring Whole Foods Market to the DC USA retail complex! The best way for you to voice your support for Whole Foods is to email Karen Riley at karen.riley@wholefoods.com. Karen Riley is the real estate coordinator for Whole Foods Market. She can demonstrate the level of our support directly to the Whole Foods team working on the negotiations. Please be as descriptive as you can in your emails. Please also cc or bcc your emails to Ms. Riley to us at info@columbiaheightsnews.org. We need to keep a running tally of how many messages have been sent to Whole Foods Market so we can gage how much more work we need to do. The more people who can email Whole Foods Market the more powerful our collective voices will be! It looks like we are facing an uphill battle but as a community we can make a difference! Please spread the word!

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Whole Foods

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Whole Foods Market

Retail Space and Parking

We spoke with Ms. Riley about two other matters: the amount of retail space configured for Whole Foods and parking. As we mentioned in previous post, Mr. Rober Moore of DCCH stated that the DC USA development partnership is offering 53,000 sq. ft. of retail space to Whole Foods Market. Ms. Riley still contends that Whole Foods is only being offered 35,000 sq. ft. She mentioned that it is possible that this may be a new offer that the developers have not presented to her team yet. We will try to get to the bottom of this.

As far as parking, it is still an issue that needs to be worked out according to Ms. Riley. Whole Foods Market's requirement for 40-45 dedicated spaces for its employees and driving customers still holds. We told her that the vast majority of customers will be taking public transit or walking to Whole Foods and that the emails that we have sent her reflect that. She said that her team will take it into consideration. The only update that we were able to receive about parking was from Councilmember Jim Graham on February 8:

"...we have gone to final settlement on the construction of the 1000 space garage that will serve this new retail center on parcel 27. This is huge step forward facilitating a Whole Foods and other retail presence."

DC USA developers have told us that they have very little influence over the parking as it is being funded and managed by NCRC, the publicly chartered development company. We strongly believe that the collective voices of the community will have the greatest impact on NCRC's decision in allowing for some kind of dedicated parking arrangement for retailers who require it.

Community Support

We think we're reaching the first critical juncture in our email campaign to bring Whole Foods Market to DC USA. As Ms. Riley told us, the corporate real estate team will be holding a meeting in March (we're not sure of the exact date) to discuss the current situation. We need to encourage more people to write Karen Riley ( ) and express support for Whole Foods Market before March. The real estate teams needs to feel the full weight of our support. For those of you who have not written Ms. Riley but do support Whole Foods, now is the perfect opportunity to voice your support. Please be as descriptive as you can. Again, we need to emphasize that parking will not be an issue for most of us. We ask that you send us an email at letting us know that you have written Ms. Riley so that we can keep count. Alternatively, you may simply cc or bcc us on the message that you send Ms. Riley.

Please stay informed about this Whole Foods matter by visiting our special section dedicated to this issue. Please stay active and help spread the word. Write Karen Riley at .

Other Retailers

If you would like to see other retailers sign on with DC USA or with other retail developments in Columbia Heights, please join the discussion on our forum! We have made it even easier for you to register. You can read the instructions here. We have started a thread entitled, Book Store? Other Retailers? Please provide your input. If we generate enough interest for a particular retailer, we can make another community push to developers.

Comments

Re: Columbia Heights Whole Foods
Written by on 2006-03-14 21:37:56

To Whom It May Concern:

As a 10 year resident of Washington, DC and recent resident of the Columbia Heights neighborhood, I write to express my support for the Whole Food market project currently under discussion.

Please feel free to contact me should you have any additional questions at

Regards,
Terrance Moore
1248 Irving Street, NW
Washington, DC 20010