Scoop on Gowanus Whole Foods: Bigger Store, November Groundbreaking

So, a very well-informed tipster in Gowanus emails us with news about the planned Whole Foods at Third Avenue and Third Street. (That is the site that has proven environmentally-challenged and that has sat with little activity other than the deepening water hole seen above for more than a year.) Whole Foods, we are told, is now planning a ground breaking type of press event sometime next month to officially announce their expanded Gowanus project. The previous 42,000 square foot project has been redesigned to be 66,000 square feet (we must assume through the purchase of adjacent properties they have long been said to want). The store will now include 400 parking spaces versus the originally planned 177 space.

Our source says that "There will be no public review of the project as they claim this is all as of right...There are no envirnomental reviews going on here. Gowanus is just expected to absorb all that additional traffic."

Meanwhile, our very informed source concludes, "Whole Food's state brownfield application has been in limbo for the past 4 month--a Department of Environmental Conservation public Fact Sheet for the project was to come out in June but has been repeatedly delayed."

We're thinking that a new target opening date would now be 2008.