Whole Foods to join new Saks in Stamford

STAMFORD — Both Whole Foods and Saks Off 5th will fill the hole left on High Ridge Road by Lord & Taylor, city documents show.

Records list Whole Foods as the tenant for 110 High Ridge Road on a building permit filed in late May by owner LT Stamford LLC.

The limited liability corporation has owned the property since August 2015, according to city property records.

The organics-focused grocery chain owned by Amazon will share the space with the newly-announced Saks Off 5th location in the same building. The department store announced plans Monday to open later this year on High Ridge Road after shuttering its Stamford Town Center location in late 2021.

“We’re excited to return to the Stamford community and provide our loyal customers an enhanced shopping experience in an elevated environment with access to the designers they know and love,” Rob Brooks, president of O5, Saks Off 5th’s store division, said in a statement. Saks Off 5th is set to take over 30,000 square feet on the second floor, according to Building Department documents filed in February.

Whole Foods in April confirmed through a company spokesperson “that a Stamford store is in development.”

Whole Foods operates locations in nearby Greenwich and Darien. Data company ScrapeHero estimates that there are 514 Whole Foods stores across the country across 44 states and 353 cities.

From a real estate perspective, the chain famously picks very specific locations for its storefronts in an attempt to serve very specific clients.

The Whole Foods website specifies “good” perspective locations have “abundant parking available for its exclusive use” and are “located in a high traffic area,” and the company also writes that it prefers stand-alone locations with easy access from roadways and “excellent visibility” — all descriptors that fit the High Ridge Road space.

Whole Foods did not respond to a request for comment. A representative for the property owner declined to give a statement.