New life for Whole Foods plan?

An Atlanta firm is hoping to revive the development of a Whole Foods grocery at the northwest corner of 86th Street and Keystone Avenue. Dominion Capital, which took over the site after foreclosing on Premier Properties USA Inc., is talking with Whole Foods in hopes of completing the plan for a 60,000-square-foot store and 32 townhouses, said Ben Easterlin, a Dominion principal. Easterlin said several issues have to be addressed before Whole Foods work would begin, including negotiations with Irwin Union Bank, the senior lender on the property. Dominion hopes to partner with the developer that first pitched the project, Paul Kite Co. But Kite has no plans to get involved again, at least for now. “I’m pretty sure its going to be a legal mess for a long time,” Paul Kite said in an e-mail. “If it were to get all cleaned up and it can still be done, we’ll look at it then.” Easterlin estimates construction wouldn’t begin for at least 6 to 9 months. He said it still isn’t clear who controls the vacant, overgrown strip center across the street, where Premier had proposed the Venu project. But no matter, he says: The “highly improbable” project wasn’t going anywhere fast. “Simon would’ve shut those guys down in five minutes,” he said.

Also check out a proposal for cottage homes on another parcel in Nora, along with more about the Whole Foods proposal, in this story from IBJ’s print edition.