Palo Alto: Juice Bar Gossip

Yesterday I was sipping an elixir of wheat grass at the Whole Foods Juice Bar, when I heard some shocking news: Whole Foods is moving from downtown Palo Alto.

While I initially grumbled about Whole Foods prices, I have to admit that I go there just about every day now. It’s just so easy to grab a cup of coffee and, at the same time, pick up something fresh for dinner. Their deli counter is to die for, and my husband even refers to it as “his other wife.”

The reason that this news is relevant to real estate mavens is that I predict that wherever Whole Foods moves, it will raise the value of nearby homes. Whole Foods has a way of becoming the village hub, or the piazza, of any given community.

According to the Whole Foods barrista, the most likely spot for it to move is the old Albertson’s site at Edgewood Plaza.

This eyesore Eichler strip mall should’ve been bulldozed a long time ago, but none of the potential developers could negotiate terms with the property’s four distinctly diverse owners – Albertsons Inc, Shell Oil, some Buddist Monks who wear orange robes, and an out-of-town slumlord. What’s more, anything that’s built there has to be approved by ALL the Eichler owners who live next to the mall. (Negotiations would make a great reality TV show.)

Let us hope that Whole Foods can somehow “break the whole wheat bread” with these owners, and push this project through. It would be such a boost to this Eichler neighborhood, and it would be nice to have a larger, remodeled Whole Foods at the 101 portal to Palo Alto.