UNION STATION’S WHOLE FOODS PREPARES TO OPEN
The grocery will have a different feel than others in the metro area, with a focus on walk-in shoppers who live or work downtown and on prepared food.
Central Denver soon will have two of what it lacked for so many years: grocery stores.
Whole Foods Market will open its highly anticipated location near Union Station on Nov. 15. And like the 2-year-old King Soopers down the street, the new store will have a different feel than others in the metro area, with more prepared foods, a focus on walk-in shoppers who live or work downtown and an urban vibe.
The rail station-themed store will include a 930-square-foot Birdcall chicken restaurant. All told, 3,530 square feet of the more than 50,000-square-foot store at 1701 Wewatta St. will be dedicated to prepared foods — things not traditionally thought of as groceries. That square footage is 28 percent larger than the prepared-foods sections at your average Whole Foods.
“Foot traffic is actually the specific reason,” Whole Foods spokeswoman Heather Larrabee said. “In our urban stores around the company, where we have higher foot traffic and people are coming in daily or every few days, what we’ve seen is they want a bigger variety of options. And it needs to be very convenient.”
Beyond being informed by customer behavior at urban stores in places such as Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles, Larrabee said the new store is a reflection of trends in Denver itself. She pointed to the popularity of Denver Central Market and Stanley Marketplace as examples.
“There has been a lot of momentum for food halls,” she said. “We are really getting a clear message that this is what Denver wants.”
Features will include a hot mac-andcheese bar, house-rolled sushi, a ceviche bar, Tel Aviv-style street food and a bakery that will serve up eight varieties of focaccia bread. Birdcall, already operating a standalone store in Five Points, is on the forefront of dining convenience. It uses custom software and walk-up kiosks or a phone app to take orders. A screen then tells diners exactly how long of a wait they’ll have before their orders are dished up at a numbered bay. Beer and wine will be on the menu. In the warm months, a garage door will provide access to a patio.
Of course, there is potential for bigger sales receipts at a store that offers shoppers more than milk, eggs and bread.
A 2016 report from CBRE Research noted that consumers over the past decade had been showing a growing taste for store-prepared fine foods, items that contain high-quality ingredients at prices comparable to fast-casual restaurants. Grocery chains have been happy to oblige.
“For one, prepared foods and meals generate higher profit margins than the traditional low-margin grocery business,” the report said. “Second, offering prepared food sections such as cafes, delis, salad bars and full-service restaurants helps drive traffic to grocers and increases the likelihood of additional purchases in a single trip.”
A 2014 analysis by real estate investment firm JLL found that despite being the top name in natural groceries, Whole Foods was being outsold by competitor Trader Joe’s — $930 per square foot for Whole Foods, compared with $1,734 at Trader Joe’s. One of the reasons for that, according to Business Insider, was that Trader Joe’s was cheaper.
Amazon bought Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods in June and made it a priority to push back on its pricey reputation by slashing prices immediately after the acquisition. The chain’s latest earnings report, released in July, found that comparable store sales had decreased 1.9 percent in the prior three months.
The company has been moving in a more culinary direction in recent years, as evidenced by new store formats and management decisions such as hiring an executive in 2015 to lead its culinary and hospitality programs and expanding the Friends of Whole Foods program.
Before celebrating a grand opening, Whole Foods will hold a wake. Or, more appropriately, a major sale at its departing Capitol Hill location. That store, 900 E. 11th Ave., will close for good Sunday afternoon. Clearance sales start on Saturday, Larrabee said. All staffers from that store will join Union Station’s team of 210 employees.
The Whole Foods store will be in Union Denver, a luxury apartment complex that takes up an entire city block and is still under construction. The third of its three towers is planned to open in the spring, and a CVS Pharmacy will open on the ground floor in the near future. A restaurant may open in another space in the project, developers said.
King Soopers has been operating a store two blocks away, at 20th Street and Chestnut Place, since the summer of 2015. That store, too, has dedicated much of its 35,000 square feet to prepared foods, featuring Mexican street food, a sandwich and panini bar and a sushi counter with a “sushi train” conveyor belt that ferries pieces of nigiri to hungry customers.
Not only had downtown Denver been starving for full-service grocers, the area was growing at a breakneck pace. The Central Platte Valley, in particular, is Denver’s fastest expanding urban neighborhood, according to a recent report from the Downtown Denver Partnership.
Since 2010, the local population has grown 58 percent, reaching more than than 6,600 residents this year. Partnership executive director Tami Door said Denver’s downtown neighborhoods added 10,000 housing units since 2010. An additional 9,000 are either underway or will be soon, she said.
“It’s so important that when you’re building neighborhoods that you are filling those neighborhoods with amenities to support the residents,” Door said. “Now we have two very significant grocery stores with a diverse array of options for the people who live and work in the center city. They also set the stage for other national brands to consider the marketplace. Many retailers, in particular, follow other retailers.”