Bring On The Monster Tomatoes

Unlike the Atlantic Yards development a mile or so down the road, the Whole Foods Market in Gowanus is not going to physically displace small businesses or create an aesthetic controversy.

Still, not all community residents are embracing plans for a branch of the organically inclined supermarket chain whole-heartedly.

Following the Nov. 29 announcement that Whole Foods will move forward with plans to build a store on a neglected lot at Third Avenue and Third Street in Brooklyn, area residents this week mostly voiced guarded approval at the prospect. From community activists to grocery shoppers, no-one objected to the supermarket moving in. But skepticism, qualified sentiments and jokes about mutant produce grew faster than a monster tomato from canal muck.

"Third and third? What the hell's at third and third?" asked Wayne Roberts, a Park Slope resident shopping at Trader Joe's in Carroll Gardens on a recent evening. "There's nothing around there. I wouldn't go there just for Whole Foods."

Roberts, 27, did acknowledge that more development would probably follow on the heels of such a business -- a boon to the neighborhood.

"They should clean that area up," he said. "If it means they clean it up, and they make better use of the area, then it's a good thing, I guess."

Another shopper, Ryan Williams, had driven from his girlfriend's loft near the Smith and Ninth Street subway station to load the car with groceries. While the proposed Whole Foods will be much closer to her place than Trader Joe's, he said he would probably still drive to the Whole Foods store for the convenience of bulk shopping with a car. He would likely switch allegiance to the store if it opens as planned in late 2012.

"Yeah, definitely," he said. "I love Whole Foods. They have good products. It's good quality."

Community activists also agreed the store bodes well, but were wary about whether the enterprise would deliver on its promises.

"I'm hoping everything is as they say it is," said Maria Pagano, president of the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association. Like other community leaders, she was pleased that Whole Foods had scaled down initial plans for the size of the store and its parking lot. Her brow furrowed over the daunting clean-up job, though, which previously thwarted the store's progress when it broke ground on the site in 2006. 

"I hope they stay focused on the clean-up and on major improvement in terms of the area," Pagano said. "But I'm delighted there will be some use."

Whole Foods will make a presentation to in early 2011, Whole Foods spokesman Michael Sinatra wrote in an email, although no date is fixed. The board will then make a recommendation, "but that isn't a binding 'vote'," Sinatra wrote. The Board of Standards and Appeals will vote on Whole Foods, but Sinatra said the company has yet to submit its variance application.

Addressing objections that arose several years ago, Whole Foods scaled back the size of its prospective store by 25 percent, to 52,000 square feet, and cut down the size of the parking lot by about 40 percent, from 430 to 248 spaces, according to a company announcement. 

The store's proffered incentives include a 40-foot esplanade, recharging stations for electric-powered vehicles, and a 20,000-square-foot greenhouse on the roof, where produce will be grown and sold in the store.

Before a meeting last week to discuss the Superfund cleanup of the Gowanus Canal, area activists and Glenn Kelly scoffed at the charging points, saying extra bike racks would prove more necessary. Both said they would like to see Whole Foods giving "useful things" to the community in exchange for the profits it would probably make at the site.

Armer pointed out that the Ikea store in nearby Red Hook donated furniture to project housing before moving into its current location. He questioned whether Whole Foods would offer affordable delivery rates to senior citizens, and mentioned that community centers in the area could benefit from "sprucing up."

Whole Foods could trade green for green, Armer added, by planting trees along the sidewalks in the gritty neighborhood.

"Why wait for the mayor's million trees?" he said, referring to the city's plan for more verdant streets.

Kelly was primarily concerned about Whole Foods conducting a thorough purge of the site's environmental sludge and stipulated that the company should "do no harm." 

Aside from that, Kelly said ideally he would like to see mixed-use development of the site, akin to the neighboring Old American Can Factory, which now houses a diverse array of artist studios, businesses and public spaces.

"Frankly, rather than a Whole Foods one-story building, I'd rather see a three or four-story building with artists, work spaces, housing, restaurants, cafes," he said. "A true multi-use building, and do it all without overdoing it."