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 also wants dedicated parking spaces for Whole Foods customers in the underground garage.  But this can't be arranged because the City will own and operate DC USA's parking garage and they are unwilling to dedicate such spaces.

More Information Needed 

At this point, we have heard conflicting stories for whether Whole Foods Market is still considerating the DC USA site or not.  We need to gather more information.  We have posted a list of contacts for the parties that are involved in the negotations.  We have spoken to each of the contacts to gather the information that we have reported here.  Please feel free to contact them yourself to try to get more details.  If you find out more news, please contact us.

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