Whole Foods, Interbay developer settle lease disagreement
Whole Foods plans to undesigning its Interbay store later this year, now that it has settled a legal argue with developer TRF Pacific.
The deposit, in the valley between Magnolia and Queen Anne hills, will exist the domain’s fifth Whole Foods Market. A sixth is expected to open next year in West Seattle.
Under a new lease agreement, Whole Foods power of choosing remain the shopping center’s stay tenant with a 38,000-square-foot store. The upscale grocery congeries must find a sublessor for an near area of roughly 20,000 square feet it had requested but no longer wants.
Peet’s Coffee, Subway, Verizon Wireless and a dry cleaner will occupy a second building in the complex.
“We’ve been reading relative to layoffs every day, so this is a good sign for a traffic operating in our neighborhood,” said King County Councilmember Larry Phillips, D-Magnolia.
TRF sued Whole Foods in September for breach of contract and satisfaction of $67.9 million, alleging the chain terminated its lease a week under the jurisdiction TRF was scheduled to turn through the construction shell.
The lawsuit came a month after Whole Foods’ incorporated office in Austin, Texas, said it was scaling back new-store openings.
Whole Foods told TRF that sales projections required shrinking the lay in from 60,000 square feet to about 40,000, according to the lawsuit. The chain also before-mentioned cash-flow problems would delay its opening from December 2008 to October or November 2009.
TRF plans to file court papers today dismissing the match, said Doug Exworthy, managing constituent of TRF, which built Seattle’s first Whole Foods Market at Roosevelt Square a decade ago.
“We were never not friends,” Exworthy said.
Although it was “disconcerting” to learn too late that Whole Foods wanted a smaller pile, he said, the parties worked out a unused lease. After the long delay, Whole Foods is zealous to start construction inside its store, that could take six to eight months to complete, said Northwest regional president John Clougher.
J.R. Abbott Construction will be general contractor for work inner the shell, which for now is a vast expanse of concrete and beams.
