Whole Foods is confirming a widely shared rumor that the grocery chain will open a store in a new mixed-use development at 965 Florida Avenue, Northwest. The 40,000-square-foot store is Whole Foods’s third District store under development, joining future sites on H Street, Northeast, and in Navy Yard.
The Shaw store will anchor a planned building, tentatively named the Griffith, that development firms MRP Realty and Ellis Development Group plan to construct. The building, which could break ground by early 2016, will join a slew of other new high-end buildings around the intersection of Florida Avenue and U Street, including JBG’s Shay, Hatton, and Atlantic Plumbing properties, which are scheduled to open later this year.
MRP and Ellis beat JBG in a 2013 bidding war for 965 Florida, which sits on land owned by the District government. JBG’s proposals for the site included a Harris Teeter supermarket. When it opens, the 370,000-square-foot Griffith will include about 400 residential units, 30 percent of which will be set aside for residents who qualify for affordable dwelling units.
There is no projected opening date yet for this Whole Foods location. The H Street and Navy Yard locations, also anchoring mixed-use developments of their own, are scheduled to open in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
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.
