Fort Greene is getting a Whole lot ritzier.
Whole Foods is opening a mini-market inside the new luxury tower next to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where it will join a long-awaited Apple store. Both companies are known for their high-priced products, but at least one local homeowner says she is excited to see more money flowing into the area.
“I want the neighborhood to be desirable and I want property values to go up because that’s what I’m going to retire on,” said Fort Greene resident Karen Hurrman. “So I’m not going to complain, it’s progress.”
The new 365 by Whole Foods Market will open in 2018 in developer Two Trees Management’s in-the-works 32-story building on Ashland Place and Lafayette Avenue — formerly known as BAM South, but now blandly renamed as 300 Ashland — alongside the Apple store, a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, a new home for Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, a new Brooklyn Academy of Music cinema, and 379 apartments.
Whole Foods’ 365-branded stores — currently only in operation on the West Coast — are just like the standard markets known to many as “Whole Paycheck,” but with slimmed-sown selections of grocery items and pre-made meals.
It will be a few blocks from the larger and cheaper Atlantic Terminal Stop and Shop, and a forthcoming Trader Joe’s at the City Point mall on Fulton Street, but many locals say they can’t wait to start stocking up on asparagus water and $6 pre-peeled oranges at the high-end emporium.
“I’ll be definitely be there,” said Fort Greene resident Derek Zimmerman, who usually travels to BJ’s in Bay Ridge or Costco in Sunset Park to pick up groceries.
But Hurrman isn’t sure she will be a customer — she says she enjoys escaping the hustle and bustle of living in a metropolis at the full-sized Whole Foods in tranquil Gowanus.
“It depends on if I like the vibe of the store better,” she said. “Shopping in Whole Foods in Gowanus is like my therapy — I ride my bike there and I like it there because the buildings are low, it’s open sky and I feel like I’m not in New York.”
This will be the borough’s second Whole Foods-Apple combo — both companies opened adjacent stores in Williamsburg last year.
