Photo illustration via David Garber on Facebook
David Garber, Navy Yard’s ANC commissioner, announced last night via Facebook that developer WC Smith has confirmed Whole Foods will be a tenant at 800 New Jersey Avenue SE. We broke the news there first via our page: if you don’t follow us on Facebook, click here to do so.
800 New Jersey Ave. SE, via Google Maps
Whether you love or love to hate this upscale niche supermarket, I think most of us can agree that it will be a welcome addition to this part of the neighborhood. You can read David’s post on the Whole Foods-related speculation here, from earlier this year, and the responses it generated: local retail makes it easy to stay in the neighborhood. Supermarkets are wonderful; creating jobs is also a good thing; but the Hill needs more than just places to buy food.
We would love to know your thoughts on this newest addition to the neighborhood: how do you feel about a Whole Foods? Is it a welcome sign in an area of town that can handle a more upscale retailer, and does this mean we will finally get clothing and shoe stores coming to the Hill? Are you excited to go “bargain shopping” at Whole Foods, as this Cosumerist post discusses and buy tofu for $1.50? Clearly, it’s also time to do a second and third round of comparison shopping. In case you haven’t read Tim Krepp’s take on the Harris Teeter vs. the UnSafeway, click here to do so.
Perhaps you feel the addition of a business perceived by many (in our Facebook comments alone) as overpriced and which does not honor local farmers despite what their campaigns, like the Local Producer Loan Program, try to reflect, is just another sign of how gentrification is changing our city, and not for the better? We know you have opinions, Capitol Hill: let’s hear them.