Whole Foods sets November closing date for Englewood store

Whole Foods will close its store in Englewood on Nov. 13 after deciding earlier this year to pull out of the South Side neighborhood.

The company announced in April it would shutter the store, news that came as a gut punch to a neighborhood that had received the grocer with much fanfare six years prior. Residents told the Tribune they felt betrayed by Whole Foods’ decision.

At the time, Whole Foods did not specify when the store would close. The closure date was first reported Wednesday by Block Club Chicago and confirmed by the Tribune with a company spokesperson.

Whole Foods opened the Englewood store, located at 832 W. 63rd St., in 2016. Nonprofit developer Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives received $10.7 million to prepare the site before the city sold it to Leon Walker of DL3 Realty for $1.

Walker told the Tribune Wednesday that three grocery operators — one a national grocery company, one a local chain and one an independent grocer — were in conversations about operating a store at the Whole Foods site.

“It looks like we should have something to announce prior to closing about a transition that will happen with a new grocer early next year,” he said.

The decision about what grocery operator is chosen is ultimately Whole Foods’, Walker said, because the new operator will sublease from the company.

“We’re going back and forth trying to find which one’s going to be able to move the fastest and also provide long-term strength and competence,” he said. “We want to make sure we select and go forth with the operator that is attuned to what the community needs and is prepared and committed to being a long-term solution.”

Though the company initially priced some staples lower than in other Chicago-area stores, the premium-priced grocer still faced skepticism regarding how its high prices would play in Englewood.

After the closure was announced in April, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot blamed the cost of shopping there.

”I don’t know about most of you, but most Chicagoans are hard-pressed to pay, for example, $15 a pound for a piece of steak,” she said. “We’ve got to make sure that we’re making the investments that make sense for those neighborhoods.”

In May, Walker told the Tribune DL3 Realty was looking for grocers that were neither gourmet nor deep discount options. The three grocery operators in conversations about the site meet that description, he said Wednesday.

The sale agreement with the city requires a full-service grocery store to operate in the Englewood Square development until late 2027. The agreement requires a new store to be up and running within 18 months of Whole Foods’ departure. That would put the deadline for a new grocery store in May 2024.

Employees from the Englewood store will be given the opportunity to transfer to other Whole Foods locations, a Whole Foods spokesperson said.

At the same time it announced the Englewood closure, Whole Foods also announced it was shuttering a store in the DePaul University Welcome Center and four other stores around the country.

The same week the company announced the Englewood closure, it opened a nearly 66,000-square-foot location in the Near North neighborhood.