Crains New York reports that Whole Foods plans to build a bigger Brooklyn store:
by Catherine Tymkiw

Whole Foods Market said its new store in Brooklyn will be larger than previously expected, thanks to a redesign, but won’t require additional land.

The original plan called for a 49,000-square-foot store to be located near the Gowanus Canal on a 2.1-acre site at Third Street and Third Avenue. The retailer has three Manhattan locations: a 60,000-square-foot store at Columbus Circle, a 34,000-square-foot store in Chelsea and a 50,000-square-foot store at Union Square.

Published reports suggested that the Brooklyn expansion would require more land — a claim Whole Foods denies.

“It’s going to stay on that one lot,” said Whole Foods spokesman Fred Shank., adding that it was too soon in the redesign process to know the store’s exact size.

The store redesign and cleanup of the building site have prompted the organic food retailer to push back the grand opening by more than a year. It was originally planned to open this fall but is now expected to debut in early 2008.

The company said the new store would “reflect recent Whole Foods Market design innovations,” declining to provide further details. The retailer expects completion of environmental remediation by this fall, followed by 15 months of construction.

“A large portion of the cleanup work has already been completed,” said Environmental Conservation Department spokeswoman Gabrielle DeMarco. That work included removing contaminated petroleum storage tanks and excavating contaminated soil.

Ms. DeMarco said there’s no timetable for completion of the cleanup because Whole Foods voluntarily entered into the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program, which gives companies tax credits in exchange for cleaning up contaminated sites.