Whole Foods signs SLT lease agreement
By Kathryn Reed
Whole Foods is coming to South Lake Tahoe after all.
The announcement came this week in conjunction with the high-end supermarket chain’s fourth quarter earnings report. Leases for its 365 by Whole Foods Market stores have been signed in South Lake Tahoe, Redlands, and Fairfax, Va.
Details of the lease have not been disclosed. A representative from Whole Foods did not respond to an inquiry from Lake Tahoe News.
“The stores will feature a simple, affordable and convenient shopping experience that offers the high quality standards that Whole Foods Market pioneered,” the Austin, Texas-based chain said in a press release.
It will be built where the Knights Inn currently sits on Highway 50 near Ski Run Boulevard.
“The fact that Whole Foods has issued a press release is encouraging to us that they have comfort in the contract that we have,” City Manager Nancy Kerry told Lake Tahoe News.
This is an example of the architecture Whole Foods uses. Rendering/Provided
The city and Pradip Patel, who owns Knights Inn, entered an agreement earlier this year for the city to purchase the parcel for $6 million. That agreement fell apart this fall when the California Tahoe Conservancy started talking privately to Patel as it angled for the commodities associated with the property.
(Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, the bi-state regulatory entity, has put a price on hotel units, commercial floor area and land coverage which has falsely inflated the value of properties in the basin and has stifled redevelopment.)
Patel did not return a call.
Mike McLaughlin, his attorney, told Lake Tahoe News he was unaware of any deal. McLaughlin does not believe the contract with the city is still viable.
“There was a financing contingency as part of the contract and the city didn’t satisfy that contingency. So by its terms the contract automatically terminated,” McLaughlin told Lake Tahoe News.
City Attorney Tom Watson told Lake Tahoe News, “Our position is we have an enforceable agreement.”
The City Council last month gave Watson direction to look into a potential lawsuit to enforce the agreement with Patel. The contingency was written to give the city an out in case funding from the California Tahoe Conservancy didn’t come through. And while that money isn’t available to the city, the city came up with the $6 million.
Patel used the contingency to his advantage to say he could pull out because the CTC wasn’t involved. The city says Patel and his attorney are wrong.
Since the blow up this fall Patel has been speaking directly with Halferty Development of Southern California.
Chris Peto with Halferty could not be reached.
What the terms of their agreement are have not been disclosed.
Halferty is in escrow to buy the neighboring property on the corner of Highway 50 and Ski Run Boulevard. The plan is to blur the property lines with commercial development that flows from one parcel to the other.
There is no way, according to officials, that the southwest lot could house Whole Foods because the store needs about 25,000-square-feet of commercial floor area and the corner parcel comes with about half that much.
The city originally wanted to make this a commercial and environmental project. That is why the CTC was involved.
“This is economic development first,” Kerry said.
Environmentally the creek that runs under the property was going to be day-lighted and 10,000 pounds of sediment diverted from the lake. The developer is under no obligation to make that happen. It was the Conservancy’s money – aka California taxpayers’ — that was going to pay for it. That aspect of the project may never happen.
The southwest corner has been vacant since 1989, 27 years ago when the City acquired it via eminent domain, that’s what happens. Let’s hope something happens now.
Where on earth did the City come up with the $6 million absent the Conservancy’s funding? The street maintenance budget?
“[The city] had $5.1 million from Halferty Development, $800,000 from Placer County from the sale of onsite tourist accommodation units, and the city contributing $100,000.”
That is from this story: https://www.laketahoenews.net/2016/10/whole-foods-redevelopment-project-squandered/
LTN staff
Eminent domain? 27 yrs? Some of the snakes from the HOLE must be involved here, ya think?
YOU CAN N0T MAKE THIS STUFF UP
Yep same people involved in every failed project fron Herbert to State line. Next on their list Gondola Condos, before planning commission next Thursday at 3 pm. Come see how it works.
Thursday at 3pm…workday, school gets out at 3pm and it’s OUT at the airport….hmmm how many working mom’s and dads will be able to be there?
Are there any arrangements for the children mom or dad might have to bring if they can get there?
This is great news for South Lake Tahoe to get an affordable version of Whole Foods here. MORE JOBS, HEALTHY FOOD, BEAUTIFUL STRUCTURE AND A BETTER TAX STRUCTURE FOR THE CITY.
What is disappointing to me is now due to lack of support from the Conservancy and the League, tons of sediment will continue to pour into the lake via Ski Run Marina harbor. The all or none approach will continue to haunt us until the anti development culture is replaced with thoughtful development that replaces dilapidated structures with new ones and helps transform the infrastructure to one that is more salutary for lake clarity and detrimental to the ever growing AIS.
Congratulations to Jim Halferty for not giving up as he experienced trial through fire. He is a community oriented developer and will be very welcome to Tahoe. Proud to have him as a neighbor.
“Whole Foods” and “Affordable”… not two words you normally see in a sentence, unless it is a press release….oh wait.
M Elie…’and detrimental to the ever growing AIS.’
AIS = ??
I agree with Mr. Alyeshmerni! Economic development and environmental protection can and should go hand in hand. I’m extremely disappointed in the Conservancy. Their actions in the past few years are completely inconsistent with the mission that agency had been on when it was first formed.
This is a win for our community!
Robin, AIS is aquatic invasive species, most common variety is milfoil. Very aggressive growth especially in the environment of nutrients.
Lisa, yes Whole Foods and affordable may be an oxymoron, but Whole Foods does not go into a community to fail. They do their research. If they check the median income of the SLT community, they have to be affordable. They have more than one model and size.
Kae, thank you for clarifying the source of $6,000,000. If the city is putting in $100,000, you can be sure that their return both financially and in community building will be off the charts.
Kudos to the city manager and the council for not allowing this development to die after the conservancy withdrew its support.
“‘This is economic development first,’ Kerry said.”
The sound of an alarm bell going off. As well as a flashback to the priorities of the ugly ’50s.
Anything that gets built will have significant environmental improvements built in designed to reduce run off and sediment Lora’s.
Why not just leave it as it is and not mess with a good thing?
Carl, what do you mean with the last line? Leave what as is. Surely not Knight’s Inn.
Thank God! What a great additional to the Tahoe lifestyle.
One more step to becoming any town USA. Very bad.
We have Raleys and Safeway we are already anywhere USA when it comes to grocery stores. This brings more choice for shoppers and potential employees.
Carl, Raleys 120 stores, Whole Foods 420, Safeway 1335, Grass Roots 1, grocery outlet 1, we still have a chance TO STOP being Anywhere USA. You make your choice.
If you think we will become anywhere USA because of a corner grocery store, that this one store will be the one addition that makes us just like everywhere else that will dissuade people from coming here you would be mistaken. Plenty of room for competition and increased choice for all.
Add in Bev-Mo, zip line and roller coaster at the heave, probably a few nationals at the “new” stores at the y and we are, any town. Just keep widening the roads and turn them into high speed limit thru ways and call us Sac East.
Carl, It’s one store at a time, and it’s coming. Do I/we really have to tell you this?
I would agree the design of Bev Mo and Auto Zone are terrible and the city is blame for that and I have been critical of both. At the end of the day both places provided new job opportunities for residents, improved the competitiveness of existing competitors and provided more choice for residents and visitors alike. Neither impacted visitation at all. Add to it all the new local projects at Harrison, the Y and past the Y and the local owned projects will continue to enhance and diversify the community. The same way it has in coffee shops, restaurants and lodging. Plenty of choice for all. Protectionist strategies never succeed in the end they only delay the inevitable you should know that by now.
That being said please put forward your strategies for sustaining the local economy over the next decade. I am sure they are better than mine and we all would welcome them.
The road change is to get people who don’t want to be here on their way as quickly as possible.
I was in Park City Utah and they shoved one of these Whole Foods quite nicely in a very small space. I welcome it we have CRAP up here for grocery stores. It will FLOURISH.