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Construction Notice for Weeks of: July 18, 2016 and July 25, 2016
And there you have it folks. Whole foods is not opening until next Spring. And to be honest, I have doubts that they will even make that deadline. I was afraid that they would do what they did in another city where they had a completed shell but delayed the opening for a year. Well, that's basically what is happening here according to this construction update.
I'm not sure what kind of store they are building, but I don't think it took that much time to build the shell.
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New road construction east of 46th Street to connect to Maryland Avenue is ongoing. The final asphalt
topping course and striping of roads and parking areas will be completed before the end of the year. Sidewalk and paver installation adjacent to Whole Foods Market and parking lot is completed. The
park adjacent to Route 1 (Gateway Park) is nearing completion. Bio-soil storm water retention devices
are being installed throughout the site. The sidewalk and road work along Maryland Ave., at the
southeast corner of the site, has started.
Fine grading for 119 townhome lots is ongoing so the townhome builder can start construction of these
units this summer. The first lots are being turned over to the townhouse developer in late August.
Construction of three new commercial buildings (#1, 2 & 4) has started. Tenant fitout work in Building
#3 will begin shortly. WSSC’s paving contractor has completed the asphalt paving restoration on Route 1 south of Riverdale
Park Station in front of the Armory and USPS (work not related to this project).
Whole Foods Market: Tenant fitout work inside Whole Foods Market is anticipated to begin sometime before the end of July,
2016. This construction is being managed by Whole Foods Market. They estimate that construction,
stocking and employee training will take 9-10 months from the time construction work commences.
Hiker/Biker Trail: The Hiker/Biker Trail has been deeded to MNCPPC’s Department of Parks and Recreation who will
manage and maintain the trail. They expect to open the trail for use by the public once they determine
that site conditions are suitably safe from dangers associated with the immediately adjacent
construction activities. We anticipate that the trail opening will roughly correspond to the opening of the
Whole Foods Market.
Are they trying to wait until the townhomes are also built?
Possibly. BUt I don't think those homes will be occupied in 10 months. I'm not sure about Whole Foods' timeline. And perhaps this is normal and we're just too involved in the week by week updates. lol But I can't help but think all those people who drove by and saw the "Whole Foods Coming Soon" sign will be wondering why it won't be open until next Spring. Practically a full year from August 1st. We're talking June of 2017 for a grand opening. A far cry from media outlets last year suggesting a Winter 2015 opening.
By next year I believe a number of the surrounding retail will be open. Burton's Grill plans to be open by next fall I believe. Maybe they didn't want to be the ONLY retail open throughout the winter?
PS, there is still a lot of construction going on. It would seem odd to be open and there's dust and heavy machinery rolling around. So, I think they want more of the construction to be completed before opening. It would add to a better customer experience. There is outdoor seating in front of the Whole Foods. It wouldn't be nice to eat outside and see nothing but dirt and half-completed buildings. The bridge will be completed next year to. That may play a part in everything coming together as well.
I wonder if the construction company has missed any deadlines and has incurred fines. Many of us has observed an awfully slow construction process the last two years.
Last edited by adelphi_sky; 07-19-2016 at 09:32 AM..
Possibly. BUt I don't think those homes will be occupied in 10 months. I'm not sure about Whole Foods' timeline. And perhaps this is normal and we're just too involved in the week by week updates. lol But I can't help but think all those people who drove by and saw the "Whole Foods Coming Soon" sign will be wondering why it won't be open until next Spring. Practically a full year from August 1st. We're talking June of 2017 for a grand opening. A far cry from media outlets last year suggesting a Winter 2015 opening.
By next year I believe a number of the surrounding retail will be open. Burton's Grill plans to be open by next fall I believe. Maybe they didn't want to be the ONLY retail open throughout the winter?
PS, there is still a lot of construction going on. It would seem odd to be open and there's dust and heavy machinery rolling around. So, I think they want more of the construction to be completed before opening. It would add to a better customer experience. There is outdoor seating in front of the Whole Foods. It wouldn't be nice to eat outside and see nothing but dirt and half-completed buildings. The bridge will be completed next year to. That may play a part in everything coming together as well.
I wonder if the construction company has missed any deadlines and has incurred fines. Many of us has observed an awfully slow construction process the last two years.
I wouldn't want to bike/walk/shop there while everything was still transitioning. That's not very safe. Those homes could go up very quickly in theory.
By next year I believe a number of the surrounding retail will be open. Burton's Grill plans to be open by next fall I believe. Maybe they didn't want to be the ONLY retail open throughout the winter?
PS, there is still a lot of construction going on. It would seem odd to be open and there's dust and heavy machinery rolling around. So, I think they want more of the construction to be completed before opening. It would add to a better customer experience. There is outdoor seating in front of the Whole Foods. It wouldn't be nice to eat outside and see nothing but dirt and half-completed buildings. The bridge will be completed next year to. That may play a part in everything coming together as well.
I think this is one of the biggest considerations, they'd probably want to open the majority of the plaza at the same time. Get the building exteriors done and then start opening businesses. But at the rate the construction has gone there, it could be 2018 before building 2 is up.
Think it's worth revisiting this post I made in "The first WF in PG" thread, over a year ago now.
Particularly so, in light of, 1: new delay in opening WF, and 2: failure to announce any new tenants, especially after Annapolis approved six new restaurant liquor licenses specifically for the development in April.
I've noted already, that when the legislature did similar for the new Laurel Town Center in 2014, they were out the door with new restaurant announcements in short order.
Here's the full post from last year, looking specifically at the RPS business opportunity from the perspective of a small in line business such as a dry cleaner, coffee shop, spa, liquor store, etc. also at the link below, with the post I was replying to.
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No, I don't think we've exhausted it at all, as you'll see below.
Completely agree that in 10 years things will be much better due to Rt 1 redevelopment, but it's also true that the economics of the opportunity for WF, or any anchor, are completely different to the opportunity for the smaller in line retailers and that is what "may" be holding up lease signing.
Here's an on-the-fly analysis.
A typical anchor seeks to keep lease costs at 2% of sales. A typical small in line retailer seeks to keep lease costs at 5% of sales.
So, a typical 50K sf grocery store with $25M in sales is seeking to keep lease costs at $500,000 which equals $10 per sf, and a sales per sf ratio of $500.
Over the course of a typical ten year lease, (anchors sign for longer), WF at RPS could expect to pay about $4M in lease costs, and generate $200+M in sales.
Breaking down annual $20M sales into hourly traffic works out at $385K per week, $4.6K per hour on an 84 hour week. At an average register ring of $50 (the higher the ring the fewer actual customers) that's 90 customers an hour. With 6 checkouts constantly open that's 15 customers per checkout, per hour. That's one every 4 minutes, atl six checkouts, for 84 hours continuously.
Not many grocery stores where that happens. Instead it tends to be shorter bursts of a greater number of checkouts open, 10+ on the weekends, and in the early evenings mid week that allow grocery stores to hit their sales targets.
Increase the average ring to $100, which is much more likely at WF than elsewhere, and you only need 45 customers per hour to hit your target, and you've just halved your traffic, which is really bad news for the small in line retailers who depend on anchor traffic.
Now look at that dynamic from the small retailer's perspective. I'll use the example of a mid size store, paying "median" rent. Say 3,000 sf at $30 an sf also open for 84 hours a week. $90K a year
There are two different types of in line retailers, the convenience type, such as dry cleaners, liquor, fast food, even banks, where customers have an expectation or at least hope, that they can get in and out fast, and the destination type such as hairdressers, spas and gyms where customers expect in advance that they are going to have to commit a significant amount of time. The economics for these two types are different, and I'll focus on the first type since they are the more common, and more closely affected by the performance of the anchor.
An in line retailer paying $90K a year and seeking to keep lease costs at 5% of sales needs to have $1.8M in sales. That works out to $412 per hour. Average rings vary by type of establishment so I've no number for that. But a general rule of thumb is that Fr-Sun sales = 60% of weekly total. Mon -Thurs = 40%.
So, $1.8M a year is $35K a week, 60% Fri-Sun = $21K/3 = $583 an hour. That's a $20 ring every two minutes at the dry cleaners.
Applying the 60/40 week end rule to the customer count at the WF you get 126 customers per hour if the average WF ring is $50, and 63 if the ring is $100. Lets split the difference and say the average ring is $75. Then you'll need 85 customers per hour to maintain target.
If there are 10 in line retailers, ( and I'm being generous here, the more in line the greater the problem and RPS has 15/16) all needing to average $583 an hour on the weekend, those 85 WF customers are going to have to contribute a significant portion of that, say 60% or $3,500, or $41 each, or 54% of the $75 they just spent at the grocery store. That's a tall order, but if not, what's the point in having an anchor?
Now ask yourself, how often do you use a grocery store and then spend an additional 54% in the same center? Every trip? Every week? Every month? Sure, you might often spend another 54% when you're out grocery shopping, but is it in the same center as the grocery store?
An additional problem for the in line is that because of their smaller size they lack the same capacity as the grocery store to open extra checkouts to cope with a surge in demand and sometimes are unable to take advantage of business coming their way.
Now I'm not suggesting that these numbers are 100% accurate because the in lines also feed off each other, and I haven't factored that in, but they're not too far off.
The basic point is: If WF sucks up a larger percentage of the available weekly spend in a lower income area, like Riverdale as compared to a higher income area like Ashburn, then there is less money left to spread to the in line retailers, and that is what I think is causing the hesitancy ar RPS.
It's much easier for WF than the in lines to wait it out for the good times because both their lease and labor costs, (by far the two largest, maybe 75% of total cost), expressed as a percentage of sales are significantly lower. A sizeable portion of grocery store labor costs are absorbed by supplier staff undertaking shelf stocking, which is not done for the in lines.
Put a Wal-Mart or some such, on that site and the in line could be leased in a New York minute, because people with $200-300 a week to spend can get a lot more of their essentials at Wal-Mart and then have more money left over for discretionary spending, which is what the in line people depend on.
H&R are big boys they have contact or done deals with many of the national retailers who follow WF or other anchors, but so far have not been able to attract much to the first (maybe only) WF in a county of nearly 1M. That's the current reality.
From where I am in south Laurel near Konterra, the Columbia, and Silver Spring WF stores are closer than Riverdale in terms of both time and distance. Add Annapolis to the mix and that probably also holds true for most Prince Georgians who live outside the beltway, certainly those along the 301 corridor.
I understand quite well it's not the vibe the developer is going for. I am suggesting that the many lower income households in the immediately surrounding Zips would prefer a Walmart over a Whole Foods.
It is such a strange location for a WF, I've speculated previously that it has driven by a political rather than economic motive for WF, (warehouse, but no store in PG, keep the blacks off our back), and because for everyone else it's a straightforward economic issue, few others have so far been willing to sign up.
I understand quite well it's not the vibe the developer is going for. I am suggesting that the many lower income households in the immediately surrounding Zips would prefer a Walmart over a Whole Foods.
That's speculation.
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It is such a strange location for a WF, I've speculated previously that it has driven by a political rather than economic motive for WF, (warehouse, but no store in PG, keep the blacks off our back), and because for everyone else it's a straightforward economic issue, few others have so far been willing to sign up.
Whole Foods signed the lease back in 2012. One could argue that the demogrphics now are better than they were closer to the height of the recession. Four years later you finally have a College Park that is swarming with development projects and well on its way to its 2020 goal.
UTC Hyattsville finally got its Safeway and the redevelopment of Belcrest Plaza is entering its second phase. Arts District Hyattsville is continually becoming a hot zip for new families. I think Whole Foods knew what they were doing 4 years ago. By 2017, a large number of projects that are under construction will deliver.
Even Bozzuto is getting in the game with the south campus gateway with a "high-end" grocer.
Are all these developers drinking the koolaid or just placating "blacks." Are you suggesting that all this development is one huge social handout? "The poor blacks, let's give them something they can be proud of." I've never heard of any company locating somewhere just to make someone happy without there being some financial benefit.
Yes, the construction of this project is taking FOREVER. But who is driving the schedule? Cafritz, or Whole Foods? I would suggest that construction is the reason. Whether it be permitting issues, or resources, financial or otherwise.
After it is said and done, Whole Foods will open, and there will be quality retail. Then what will you say? "oh, it won't last forever." Sounds like what people said about National Harbor.
I understand quite well it's not the vibe the developer is going for. I am suggesting that the many lower income households in the immediately surrounding Zips would prefer a Walmart over a Whole Foods.
It is such a strange location for a WF, I've speculated previously that it has driven by a political rather than economic motive for WF, (warehouse, but no store in PG, keep the blacks off our back), and because for everyone else it's a straightforward economic issue, few others have so far been willing to sign up.
Why in the world would Whole Foods be in the business of making black people feel better about themselves?
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