From the Rumour Mill: Whole Foods Market
A friend told me that WMBD1470’s Greg and Dan were discussing a rumor about Whole Foods moving into Sheridan Village. They both claimed to have heard it from separate sources. I know, I know, rumors about Whole Foods coming to towns are rampant, and usually based on false hopes, but this time it actually almost makes sense.
Sheridan Village was bought last year by the New York Investment firm the Emmes Group. The Cohens space is currently empty and Village Plantation was only offered a one year lease (which they turned down).
From the Journal Star, Mar 13, 2007: “the new owners will seek to fill vacancies with ‘new dynamic tenants’ or replace some tenants ‘with retailers that best suit the marketplace.’”
What about Whole Foods? What do they look for in a location? From their latest annual report: “Most of our stores are located in high-traffic shopping areas and are either freestanding or in a strip center. [...] In selecting store locations, we use an internally developed model to analyze potential markets based on various criteria such as education levels, population density and income levels within certain drive times.”
Add the fact that Chicago and it’s suburbs currently hold 15 stores and a distribution center, the leap to a relatively close city with a regional population of 350,000 doesn’t seem that far fetched.
The kicker is if it really did open up, and I really don’t believe they are opening one here anytime soon, I’d join the mass hysteria, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be a regular shopper.
February 25th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Why get exciting about a, glorified, Grocery Store?
February 25th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I’m a tad concerned as to how this will affect the locally owned store around the corner- “Naturally Yours”
February 25th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I would think that in a market this size, proximity to an interstate would be a plus. How about Sav-A-Lot?
February 25th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
It wouldn’t be good for Naturally Yours. Oddly enough, prior to last week I had never been in there, now I will be a regular shopper…unless a Whole Foods opens up. My mother can no longer have gluten, so I needed to get quite a few items for her, kind of a Celiac’s Starter Pack. My sister lives outside of St. Louis and got most of the exact same items much cheaper at Whole Foods. It isn’t always about price, but man 2 bucks a box difference in cereal prices really adds up. I think Trader Joes would be a much better fit for Peoria. Since this goes along with the rumor mill theme, anyone heard about a Target coming to East Peoria as part of the old CAT site redevelopement?
February 25th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Yeah! Whole Foods! Affordable organics!
February 26th, 2008 at 9:40 am
my first thought was why would they go there when the “bom” is to the nw. then I thought, if they go where people are already going to grocery shop-Kroger & Schnucks close by, the people would be more likely to shop there
February 26th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Actually, Sheridan Village isn’t a bad location. If you look at the high occupancy rates of the Metro Centre and Evergreen Square one has to wonder why Sheridan Village is so empty. Something seems amiss, doesn’t it? Maybe the owners have been planning on Whole Foods (or something equally as large) and have left it empty on purpose.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:20 am
I’ve been gone for a year, and Greg and Dan were ALMOST erased from my memory. My soul was almost complete again. Thanks a lot, PeoriaIllinoisan!!!
Although I have myself to blame for listening to them every day on the way to work. In my mind I can still hear their droning, monotone banter putting me to sleep at the wheel and endangering the lives of those around me. I guess at the time I preferred Greg and Dan to Peoria’s oversaturated selection of Mullet Rock and [pop] Country.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I say it isn’t going to happen. I think the Emmes group is holding Sheridan Village as a tax write down and has little interest in filling the place up. One local business in Sheridan village (Village Plantation?) recently tried to renew their lease and got rebuffed, and is now retiring instead.
I have seen this sort of thing happen before. Anyone familiar with College Hills Mall in Normal? The place stood nearly empty for over a decade just to get the tax write down.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
BC,
Rumors have been circling for years about the old CAT property in downtown EP. I’ll believe it when I see it.
February 26th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
According to Emmes’ web site, the largest single opening is 16,600sq ft where Cohen’s used to reside. Whole Foods average 50,000sq ft.
http://www.emmesco.com/68-property.htm
February 26th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Maybe that’s why Emmes only offered Village Plantation a 1 year lease. Maybe they need their space for the whole foods and they will be here before the 3 year lease would be up that VP wanted.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:41 am
I’ve been to Whole Foods and I must say, I prefer Trader Joe’s. But then, again, I’m a cheapskate and it’s easy to drop $50-$75 on a single bag of groceries at WF. The same amount of money will get you 3-4 bags at TJ”s. (As should be the case, they are owned by my fave store ever-ALDI’s)
February 28th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
I doubt it’s going to be a conventional grocery store as Peoria seems pretty flush with that right now. Whole Foods could be a possibility, but I would be very surprised if one opened in Peoria before Champaign/Urbana. In the secondary market that is not suburban, Whole Foods has generally stuck to cities that already have a proven market for organics/local/natural/gourmet food. The Whole Foods in Madison (where I live) has been here since before I moved from Peoria in 1996. Although the city is a little bigger than Peoria, I believe Whole Foods took the risk because there was already a proven foundation. There were a couple of food co-ops open since the early 70s, a natural foods distributor that had a retail store and a network of organic farms surrounding the city (that supports a massive farmers market on saturdays.) The less education Whole Foods needs to do the quicker they can do well financially in a market. This is not to say that Whole Foods will not make it to Peoria, but I’m guessing that it’s still a few years away.
Their growth strategy could be looked at like Starbucks in the respect that they’re going to target the markets that already buy espresso before they pioneer in markets that involve education. That’s why they penetrated the larger cities, college towns and places with an established coffee culture first.
What about Trader Joe’s? Hmm.. although I think TJs would be do better in Peoria than Whole Foods, they haven’t been real quick to open stores and people clammer to get them to open. I remember reading a year or two ago that citizens in Rockford mailed a petition with 500 names to Trader Joe’s to get a store to open there. So far no dice.
Who do I think could be moving in? I’m guessing that it’s an experimental organic/natural foods store run by one of the major conventional grocery store chains. There have been two growth areas in grocery in the past few years – natural/organic/upscale (and as a sub category – small sized/urban stores), low price/volume (ie WalMart) and the small urban grocery (ie trader joe’s.) The guys in the middle like Krogers, Albertsons, Piggly Wiggly are hurting big time and need to do something to stop the bleeding. One way is by starting small chains that target the whole foods customer. They’re all getting into it one way or another. Schnucks just announced a small format/urban store, as has Tesco with their Fresh & Easy chain (seen as a rival to Trader Joe’s.) So who knows – it could be one of these places that is willing to push into the secondary markets that are not already penetrated by Whole Foods. Since they’re run by major supermarket chains, they probably already have a distribution center in the area as it is which makes their cost of experimenting a little easier.
My one other thought is that perhaps it could be a cost plus world market. While not a full line grocer, their selection of gourmet foods, wine/beer & international housewares/furniture would be a neat fit for Sheridan Village.
February 29th, 2008 at 10:14 am
One would think either something is going into that whole space (notice there are no “This space for lease\lease information” signs on any of the windows) or it is going to sit empty as a tax write off. I was told once that Trader Joe’s likes a minimum of 350,000 in a metropolitan area before considering an area. Peoria area is barely that.
February 29th, 2008 at 11:15 am
I wish it was going to be a World Market, but they just annouced the closure of the 3 stores in Springfield/Bloomington/Champaign. So I don’t think that is too likely, unless maybe they hope their die hards would make the trek to Peoria and the larger Peoria area can support a store better than those 3 cities did. I am going to keep wishing for a an urban Target or Trader Joe’s on the museum block. CP can correct me, but I think the Trader Joe’s in Madison has offices above it, possibly residential?
February 29th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Wow I didn’t know World Market already had stores in Springfield/bloomington/champaign. Sad to hear they’re shutting them down.
The Trader Joe’s in Madison has about 5 floors of condos above it and underground parking below (which has been sweet with all of the snow we’ve received this year.) On a related note, the new Whole Foods in Madison (they’re closing the old location which was 30,000 square feet and opening a 60,000 one) is going to have a boutique hotel on the floors above which I think is pretty interesting. We’ll see how it turns out.
February 29th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
FWIW, the UPS guy said it’s going to be a Whole Foods
March 1st, 2008 at 6:37 am
Here’s some info from Whole Foods website:
If you have a retail location you think would make a good site for Whole Foods Market, Inc., please review the following guidelines carefully for consideration:
* 200,000 people or more in a 20 minute drive time
* 40,000–75,000 Square Feet
* Large number of college-educated residents
* Abundant parking available for our exclusive use
* Stand alone preferred, would consider complementary
* Easy access from roadways, lighted intersection
* Excellent visibility, directly off of the street
* Must be located in a high traffic area (foot and/or vehicle)
Interesting…
March 1st, 2008 at 9:54 pm
more rumors….
Shoe Carnival is leaving, CEFCU will move in.
Radio Shack will move to the other side of Sheridan Village
The end of Sheridan Village with Cohens in it will be demolished up to the Chinese restaurant…..
March 2nd, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I have a friend who works in Sheridan Village and she said the Whole Foods rumor is going around there. She is unsure if it is true but she did say that they are “pressuring” CEFCU to move to the other side of the building and CEFCU doesn’t want to move.
March 4th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
[...] made mention of Whole Foods Market coming to Sheridan Village. I’m not so vain that I think my post spurred this on as I am certainly no Matt Drudge [...]
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:55 pm
[...] I think this would put to bed the rumors a Whole Foods store was going into Sheridan [...]
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