Whole Foods is Coming to West Ashley

“Well, the secret is finally out,” said Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg, a West Ashley resident, at the announcement last week that Whole Foods will open a new location on Savannah Highway.
After months of speculation of where the upscale organic and natural gourmet grocer might land, it was revealed that it would soon share a spot with Doscher’s IGA along Farmfield Road.
Tecklenburg said the indoor/outdoor soccer field would be removed, as would the corner gas station, which is known as a provider for lottery winners and ethanol-free gas.
The mayor said the store would be 45,000 square feet, but did not know how many employees it would have. He added that Doscher’s would remain; while several commercial realtors in the audience said that its lease would run out in 2020.
Omar Gaye, Whole Foods Market south region president, released the following statement: “West Ashley is a great market and there is a lot of opportunity there … [t]he Charleston community has been very receptive to us, there is a lot of interest in bringing local, healthy food options, and we are excited to be adding to our roster of stores in the area.”
The announcement ended the carrousel of rumors of where the lauded grocery store might land. Some locals opined it would take over the former Food Lion spot on St. Andrew’s Boulevard; others hoped it would choose the former Harris Teeter/Marshalls spot at the corner of Sam Rittenberg Boulevard and St. Andrews.
Another possibility would have been for the national chain to wait and place one in the under-construction West Ashley Traffic Circle. Spots in all of those locations still remain fallow.
Tecklenburg said that West Ashley was getting closer to having “sustainable neighborhoods” where families could shop, work and live. He said the Avondale area would be a “good model” for future development in West Ashley.
Several other politicians were on hand for the announcement, made at the municipal tennis center on Farmfield. County Planning Commission member Charlie Smith said he was excited that Whole Foods would ensure the development would end the “sea of parking lots.”
It wasn’t clear if Smith was making a comment about the proliferation of car dealerships further up the highway, or if the design and construction of the new grocery would be placed at the front of the lot.
Tecklenburg’s predecessor, Joe Riley, fought and won for a similar design at the Harris Teeter shopping center a few blocks closer to the peninsula, which lined up stores along the highway to block the vies of those parking lots.
Where exactly the new grocery would be located, where its entrance and exits would be located, and how it would look, would be hammered out in the planning process with city staffers, according to the current mayor.