From F150s to $150 bags of veggies

Juan Bautista de Anza

CurbedSF has the scoop that the site of the former S&C Ford dealership at Market and Dolores streets (you know, where that hideous bronze sits) has been leased to Whole Foods. Nothing has been approved yet – so this is a long-term thing – but the plan seems to be for a mixed-use building housing a Whole Foods as well as residential units above. I was hoping for the rumored Trader Joes, but it now seems they have struck out twice here in the Castro.

A Whole Foods plan for the old Cala Foods site in the Haight has been in planning for a long time, and has yet to get approval. Curbed mentions a planned date of sometime in 2011 for the Ford site conversion – depending on ability to get financing.

And the Noe Valley Voice this issue has an article stating that Whole Foods has finalized agreements to take over the Cala Foods on 24th Street, as of February next year. Apparently that site is planned to remain as a grocery only – no mixed use. Whole Foods officials are quoted as saying that no planning approvals have been sought yet, but if things are straightforward, they hope to begin operating there in late 2009. Good luck on that!

Do pink slips portend Whole Foods?

Rumor has it that pink slips were given out to employees of the Bell Markets grocery on 24th Street today. No announcement but it may mean things are underway for the rumored changeover to a Whole Foods.

Whole Foods – Noe Valley ‘mini’ store

From SuperMarke News June 2nd:

The smallest Whole Foods store in the company’s development pipeline — only 16,790 square feet — will apparently replace one of the two remaining Bell Markets stores in this city. Whole Foods Market, Austin, Texas, was previously reported to be considering the site, which is located in the Noe Valley district. Whole Foods’ website currently lists a planned store that’s the same size as the existing Bell Market in the neighborhood. Neither Whole Foods nor Ralphs, the Kroger division that operates Bell Markets, would confirm the plans. Whole Foods has said it was planning to open more smaller stores, and it is developing a grab-and-go prepared-foods small-format store in Boulder, Colo.

It’s not clear whether this is actually new news, since the same source of information was cited last September by the Noe Valley Voice, also without confirmation.