Whole Foods Plans Dallas Flagship Store
By Crayton Harrison, The Dallas Morning News, The Dallas Morning News
Dec. 30–Whole Foods Market Inc. plans to build a giant flagship store near NorthPark Center in Dallas, the Austin-based grocer said Thursday.
The store is the first announced anchor in the 33.5-acre Park Lane Place development at Park Lane and North Central Expressway.
The mixed-use project, unveiled by Harvest Partners in May, will be one of the largest ever built in North Dallas.
The 80,000-square-foot store will open in early 2007, Whole Foods spokesman Scott Simons said.
New Whole Foods stores average about 50,000 square feet.
The new Dallas location will be expansive enough to cater to North Dallas’ large, gourmet-loving population, Mr. Simons said.
Several other upscale grocery stores have been drawn to Dallas-Fort Worth, including H.E. Butt Grocery Co.’s Central Market, United Supermarkets Ltd.’s Market Street and downtown Dallas’ Urban Market.
The Park Lane location is about a mile from Central Market’s Lovers Lane store.
Mr. Simons said Whole Foods, which already has six stores in the area, plans to keep operating its other East Dallas location on Lower Greenville Avenue.
Whole Foods has plans for rapid growth. The leading natural and organic foods retailer hopes to have 300 stores open around the world by 2010, up from 179 today.
Earlier this year, the company said it would move a North Dallas store into a bigger space.
The store, at the southwest corner of Preston Road and Forest Lane, is moving to the southeast corner.
On Wednesday, the company’s stock was added to Standard & Poor’s benchmark 500 index. Its shares are up about 64 percent this year, closing Thursday at $78.24, down 86 cents.
Real estate editor Steve Brown contributed to this report.
E-mail charrison@dallasnews.com
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