Whole Foods sued for breaking Interbay lease

Posted by Geeky Swedes on September 30th, 2008

Whole Foods is being sued by the Interbay Urban Center for breaking their lease, according to a lawsuit that was filed in King County Superior Court.

The lawsuit claims Whole Foods owes the Interbay Urban Center $68 million in damages, raising doubts that the new store may never open. Our sister site Magnolia Voice broke the story this afternoon, and they have more details on the lawsuit and the potential fallout.

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JamesC

WANKERS !!!

EC

Whole Foods made an agreement, the building has been designed and built according to their specifications. Other merchants based their decision to lease space there because of the "people traffic" from Whole Foods. It is unfair for Whole Foods to pull out at the last minute due to the economy...it is not supprising that we have this shift in it, I mean doesn't the CFO for Whole Foods read the paper since the sub prime market collasped? I don't blame the developer for going after them, the reneged on an agreement that has affect the future of the other smallbusiness who were going to go in becuase of their presence. Whole Foods has an opprotunity to show their customers how to survive in this economy, perhaps cooking classes, on more economical dishes, or how to cook for your family for the week etc.and the value of a better price point for their take out food tiems etc. Whole Foods has a niche in the market, and no one should go there if they feel it is out of their price point...personally I think they are suffering from their own bad decision in their purchase of Wild Oats stores....at any rate they should be forced to open as planned or pay the price to the developer.

philk

Wow, this means I get to keep some of my paycheck. WholeFoods is overpriced -- organic or healthy doesn't equal supertrendyspendy. I hope PCC realizes this too before it's too late.

kim

i think they heard about the potential jail site. i would cut my losses and move too.

Joey

oh no!!!!

WHERE OH WHERE WILL I GET MY OVERPRICED LOCALLY GROWN ORGANIC APPLES WITH WORMHOLES IN THEM NOW???????????

pioggia

perhaps they had no choice - as you may have heard, access to credit is a little difficult just now...

JM

Perhaps another food store will jump in.

Whatever

I'm not sure why Whole Foods is messing around. I know they are having some economic woes, but the area in which they are building has bucked the trend thus far. I would think this location would be a good investment for them.

I generally like Whole Foods, but if they want to flirt around with building a new store closer to my house, I'll continue taking my money to Safeway/Ballard Market/Trader Joes/etc.

elttaes

Awww, what ever will we do, who will sell us overpriced "health" food now?

boardbrown

You're right, my mistake. Fremont is PCC. And the Queen Anne I mentioned is really more South Lake Union. My point is still relevant.

Nina

So where is amazon fresh again?

Evan

It does suck for the developer when their primary leasee - that they no doubt have been designing for and building for - drops a contract.

js

there is no whole foods in fremont or queenanne, and i for one am dissapointed they seemingly are not coming to interbay.

Sheila

No Whole Foods at all? I was really looking forward to going there.

boardbrown, there isn't one in Fremont. I believe you're thinking of PCC.

boardbrown

68 million...that's a lot of ducketts! I'd be sh*tting bricks if I were either party in that lawsuit. In hind sight, it's hard to see how a new Whole Foods would pencil out in that location. There's already one in Freemont and Queen Anne, and with the new TJoe's coming to Ballard, they would be leaning heavily on Magnolia to bring in the customers.