The rumors are true: Whole Foods Market is coming to H Street, Northeast. The supermarket chain announced today it has signed a lease to open a 38,000-square-foot location at Apollo H Street, a new apartment building set to open along to the increasingly packed corridor in late 2016.
Apollo H Street is being built by McLean-based Insight Property Group on a block that currently includes a Murry’s Fine Foods grocery store. Insight purchased the lot two years ago for $10 million. When complete, the Apollo development will include 430 residential units and 75,000 square feet of retail.
The addition of a Whole Foods to H Street further cements the neighborhood’s shifting demographics and its transition from nightlife district to full-service neighborhood. A Giant supermarket opened at Third and H streets in May, and the District’s first Walmart is scheduled to open at First and H streets in December.
“The H Street corridor is a thriving hub of diversity and cultural richness—a perfect match for Whole Foods Market’s goal to support each and every community we’re in,” Scott Allhouse, Whole Foods Market’s president for mid-Atlantic operations, says in a press release.
Whole Foods appears to be on a bit of a DC real estate spree. The announcement of the H Street store comes two weeks after the company revealed plans to open at a mixed-use development in Navy Yard in 2017. The H Street and Navy Yard stores will be the chain’s fifth and sixth DC locations.
Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.
