Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market Inc. plans to open a grocery store in The Mayfair Collection development in Wauwatosa, according to several commercial real estate industry sources.
Whole Foods Market is the world’s largest natural food grocery store chain with about 340 locations in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. The firm’s only southeastern Wisconsin store, located at 2305 N. Prospect Ave. on Milwaukee’s East Side, opened in 2006.
The Mayfair Collection is a mixed use development that is being built by Chicago-based HSA Commercial Real Estate Inc. at the former site of Roundy’s and Kohl’s supermarket warehouses northeast of U.S. Highway 45 and Burleigh Street in Wauwatosa. The first phase of the project is 270,000-square-foot shopping center, which is under construction.
So far tenants announced for The Mayfair Collection include: Nordstrom Rack, Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th, Old Navy, Carter’s, Ulta Beauty and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Representatives for Whole Foods and HSA declined to confirm plans for the grocery store at The Mayfair Collection.
“While we’re always on the lookout for great new sites, where we think we can be of service to the local community, we don’t have any plans that we can share for Wauwatosa at this time,” said Whole Foods spokesman Keith Stewart. “We generally announce new stores on our quarterly earnings calls after we have a signed lease.”
“We have always targeted more of an upscale organic style grocer for a second phase (of The Mayfair Collection). But at this point we cannot confirm that we have any consummated deal with any of the organic merchants that we have targeted,” said Tim Blum, vice president and managing director of the retail division of HSA Commercial.
The Whole Foods store on the East Side of Milwaukee has performed well in recent years and a location in Wauwatosa would make sense, said grocery industry consultant David Livingston. The city has several well-performing grocery stores that benefit from the area’s affluent and dense population he said.
Whole Foods stores are typically about 40,000 square feet in size, but can range from 18,000 to 60,000 square feet, Livingston said.
