SJ Collins has released a rendering of the coming development that will include a Whole Foods’ 365 grocery store as an anchor tenant.  There’s more information on the SJ Collins website, including the following site plan to give a better idea of the scope of the project.

SJ Collins has scheduled a community input session next Monday, June 13th at 7pm at North Decatur United Methodist Church at 1523 Church Street.

Deanne Thomas, President of the Decatur Heights Neighborhood Association, sent us a note that she sent out to area residents encouraging them to attend the meeting to highlight concerns about traffic and other impacts to surrounding neighborhoods.  (The development is just outside the Decatur city limits)

Here is Deanne’s letter in full…

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If you scavenge the internets, you can find renderings of the interiors of proposed Whole Foods “365” grocery stores.    Here are a few interior renderings of the Silver Lake, CA locations from the L.A. website “The East Sider” to give a sense of what the Decatur location of the 365 concept store will look like when it opens in a 2018.

A couple more views after the jump.

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The good folks at the Atlanta Business Chronicle responded to our post earlier today about a potential Whole Foods in Decatur by going out and getting more details on the planned store coming to “Greater Decatur”.

So the big question….WHERE???

Developer S.J. Collins Enterprises is in advanced talks with Whole Foods for a site at North Decatur Road and Church Street, according to several sources familiar with the plans. The organic grocer could take a spot across Church Street from the Tesla Motors showroom.

Are we sure?  Pretty sure…

Jeff Garrison, a partner with S.J. Collins, in a statement said he could not confirm the project. But, he said Decatur is a booming area that would be a good fit for a retail project.

As anyone who reads Decaturish regularly or drives up the Perimeter past the old GM plant site knows, Nalley is consolodating its showrooms up there in the near future.

Photo courtesy of Whole Foods website

UPDATE: See our newest post on this story for location specifics.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle is at it again.  Casually dropping hints about a Whole Foods Market in “Decatur” and subsequently setting everyone’s hair on fire.  🙂

This time the mention occurs in an article about Whole Foods’ new “365” stores.   The full article is behind a paywall, but here’s the section near the end that mentions the Decatur store.  Bolding is mine…

The 365 store was designed to complement Whole Foods larger, traditional stores. The company recently has announced new stores in Atlanta, including a flagship, 70,000-square-foot Whole Foods in Midtown at 14th and West Peachtree streets. It also has new stores planned in Chamblee and Decatur.

The Shopping Center Group is assisting Whole Foods with its local site selection.

“With the 365 stores opening now, they’re going to take the smaller footprint, be very curated product mix, very focused on creating value for customers,” said David Lannon, executive vice president of operations for Whole Foods, said in a Feb. 10 call with analysts. “You won’t see small Whole Foods Market stores open up…365 stores can go into a lot of markets we think Whole Foods can’t go in with these bigger, more exciting boxes.”

It’s unclear from the article whether the Whole Foods would be inside the city limits or part of “Greater Decatur”.   We will update you with further news as we receive/hear it.

Whole Foods Midtown photo courtesy of Whole Foods website

From Tomorrow’s News Today…

Phoenix, Arizona-based Sprouts Farmers Market will anchor the retail portion of the new Decatur Crossing project near Decatur according to source familiar with the plans.  The center, located at the corner of Scott Boulevard and North Decatur Road, is being built on the site of the former Scott Boulevard Baptist Church, as well as replacing greenspace and other smaller structures.

For all y’all who have been hoping for another downtown grocery to open up at the Callaway site, we received confirmation last night there is another hurdle the city and developer will have to overcome to make it even possible.

In a response to an inquiry from Commissioner Scott Drake at last night’s Decatur City Commission meeting, Asst. City Manager Lyn Menne confirmed that Callaway site is subject to state and local alcohol restrictions due to its close proximity to Decatur High School.

As has been discussed and referenced here many times in the past, state law prohibits the sale of alcohol for off-premise consumption within 200 yards of a school.

Ms. Menne told the commission that the city has asked both the city attorney and the Downtown Development Authority attorney to look into the restrictions on businesses that sell alcohol on (restaurants) and off-premises (grocery stores) and has been told that the city has the ability to change the law regarding on-site consumption, which would allow restaurants to sell alcohol, but it’s a state law that governs off-site consumption sales.

This would limit the ability of the city and developer to attract a grocery store to the site, which has been a long-stated goal for the project.

However, Mayor Pro-Tem Kecia Cunningham noted that there is currently a bill before the Georgia Legislature that would ease restrictions on off-site alcohol consumption sales.  Online Athens wrote about Senate Bill 91 recently HERE.

Stay tuned.

Remember last year when we discussed the idea of Sprouts Farmer’s Market coming to Decatur?

Well, this morning Tomorrow’s News Today reports this morning that Sprouts has confirmed five Atlanta metro locations.  They include Snellville, Norcoss, Dunwoody, Cumming and John’s Creek.  As for Decatur, TNT writes this…

Sprouts is also rumored to be involved in a Fuqua Development planned project in Kennesaw, as well as a Cousins project in Decatur.

The “Cousin’s project” is obviously the pending redevelopment of the Callaway building along Trinity Ave between Commerce and S. McDonough, which the city has facilitated over the past year.