You'll Have to Wait a Little While Longer to Find Out Who's Taking Greenville Ave. Whole Foods

By Robert Wilonsky Tue., Sep. 6 2011 at 5:36 PM

Categories: Development

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As many Friends of Unfair Park have reminded me in recent days, it's been well past six weeks since I posted this. Which is why every day I get at least one reminder that reads something like the one that arrived this morning: "Call Rasansky!" All right, settle down.

I left a few messages at former council member Mitchell Rasansky's office throughout the day. A little while ago, he finally called back. I reminded him: "Back on July 14, you said you'd be able to reveal who's taking over the old Whole Foods on Lower Greenville in six weeks. So who is it?"

He laughed. He sighed. And at some point he said, "There is nothing, no firm thing on it." Oy. "The announcement will probably be in about 45 days. Call me then, you'll be the first to know." OK, then. Forty-five days, which would put it at ... October 21, when it won't matter at all. Clearly, Mitchell's just screwing with us.

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It is very simple Jason. Every commercial enterprise must have a certificate of occupancy for their business activity. In the City of Dallas, there are zoning requirements which limit what can be done in the various areas of the city. If your activity is not allowed in that area, you have to obtain a special use permit. For example any bar or dance hall must have a special use permit regardless of where it is located. A "Restaurant without Drive Through Service" is a particular type of CO that the City issues. This category may obtain a beer and wine license or a liquor license, but cannot have its alcohol sales exceed a certain percentage of its total sales. It must also serve at least a minimal food menu. Many of the business establishments on lower Greenville have their CO as "Restaurant without drive through service." The City found out they they could not audit the sales and revoke the CO even if the terms of the CO had been violated. The point that I was making is that a warehouse is an industrial land use not commercial/retail and this location is certainly not zoned for that use. So once again the city has been ignoring the planning and zoning regulations on Lower Greenville. If someone wants to put in a bar or a dance hall, go right ahead and apply for the SUP. Same thing if you want to have a warehouse operation. Mr. Rasansky as a former councilmember should know better. I supposed that you will have no objections when I open an abbatoir next door to where you live.
It was a Whole Foods and a Blockbuster before. We aren't replacing a bar with a Wal-mart. This seems like a wash to me...and Wal-mart would never keep the existing structure. I still hope it's Trader Joes though...
let's just hope the ingress and egress is out of Belmont only in front of somebody's house
somewhere Avi is saying 'winning'
Why? Why would you "like to know how WF was able to use it as a warehouse..."? oh, nos... not a warehouse! Where's my fucking fainting couch... I don't understand why residential neighbors in this area feel like they need to get up in every business owner's dealings? Who gave you that right? All of a sudden you're Encyclopedia Brown? Or are you just watching too many Hallmark Channel Sunday marathons of Diagnosis Murder and Murder She Wrote? I mean, what if your neighbors looked into and asked about every aspect of your life and reported you to city/govt officials, wouldn't you wonder if you were being harassed for some reason? Also, I don't understand what your comment about restaurants having drive through service. What is that even supposed to mean?
Ha! I've already "Liked" your response but just want you to know that I really Triple Like it! Karma, man. It sucks. Although, I really don't see a WM Neighborhood Market working in this exact demographic of the neighborhood. I think they are going to have to do a lot to get other area neighborhoods over. You know, like aggressively going after the neighborhoods surrounding Gaston, Live Oak, Haskell, Fitzhugh, etc. I wish them luck! I am very excited about a WalMart brand moving into the neighborhood and really helping to fulfill the idea of daytime businesses and walkable streets! Man, I'd sure hate to live in a house directly across the street from all that traffic. Not to mention if it gets to be too much, trying to sell your house- a house directly across the street from a Walmart. I mean, they might as well have put a bowling alley "(cough)"...
So...you don't want drunks peeing on your lawn? Here, have a Walmart!
Nice...nothing like the White Rabbit of liquor savings moving into the Dallas market :)
Generally Wal Mart gets the town to spend tons of money on fixing up the streets/infrastructure around there buildings... maybe that is what is holding all this up?
The old Toys R Us at Walnut Hill and Central Expressway.
Wheres Specs going up at??
ya'll probably need to check with Avi first and see what he wants!
If they would just call it something other than Walmart...maybe I could pretend it's not a soul sucking, community destroying mega-mart...
Who cares about a Trader Joe's when we are getting a Spec's!
really doesn't matter who goes in there the street is so terrible your car will be destroyed just trying to drive down greenville.
i would like for them to keep the store.
Thanks for the links I had no idea about these smaller stores...
Thanks for the explanation ... although I would like to know how WF was able to use it as a warehouse ...
Holding out hopes for a Trader Joes...
Never gonna happen. This is Dallas.
thank gawd, I don't have to worry about a Halloween costume.
Also: “We have been hard at work on this roughly 15,000 square-foot format,” he said. "We’re in the process of developing and we will open in the second quarter in both urban and rural pilots with pharmacy and without pharmacy, varying levels of fresh and other products, product assortment.” He added, “The aim here, folks, is to get the right model so that we can rapidly roll these things out. At our peak we built about 350 supercenters in a year, so when we get this thing right, these are going to come real fast and we’re real excited about this format.”
"Another smaller format, Neighborhood Market, is being rebranded Walmart Market. Focusing on groceries and home goods, it ranges as low as 25,000 to 30,000 square feet to as high as 60,000 to 70,000 square feet." http://www.forbes.com/sites/retailwire/2011/03/15/walmart-testing-express-c-store-concept/
A WalMart Market needs 40,000 sf - WF is 35,000 sf and Blockbuster is 8,000 sf. And per Barking Dog, they have been coresampling the dirt under the parking lot and buildings for weeks. I have also seen lots of survey markers on that block.
Seems like that would be the smallest Neighborhood Wal Mart I have ever seen... Even with a rebuild there is not much parking. I just can't see that small piece of property fitting the Wal Mart 'way'... Not to mention that they move SO FAST you would think that if it was indeed Wal Mart we would have had the announcement within the six week timeline. BUT WHAT DO I KNOW!??
We can have (or they can build) a WalMart without any major zoning changes since the property is already zoned for a supermarket. Getting the late hours permit - probably won't be a problem. It's not like we don't know who Sam W is. We have no idea who really wants that $4million dollar a year bar (cough) bowling alley.
Whomever it is, they need to tear it down and put the store next to the street. Lighted/Gated parking in the rear of the store.
Rasansky is EX-city council member and he owns the property.
So we cant have a bowling alley but we can have an effing walmart.....yay...
There goes the neighborhood ... though I have to question, why do we need to call a city council member as to who will purchase or occupy a particular building? Why do we have all of these bars, Ahem, restaurants without drive through service on lower G-ville whose menus seem to think that the four food groups are Miller, Coors, Budwieser, and Michelob?
Don't those things run 24 hours? Are the remaining members of the Walton family gonna get dragged in front of the Plan Commission to ask for an SUP while members of the neighborhood associations pelt them with bricks and rotten fruit?
That is the general consensus, yes.
Walmart Neighborhood Market :)