Whole Foods lovers in Arvada will soon be able to shop locally at their favorite grocery store as the Amazon-owned chain has received approval for a site plan that would bring the city’s first location to the Northridge Shopping Center at 80th Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard.

There is no concrete timeline for when the grocery store will be open to the public, according to Iza Petrykowska, the executive director of the Arvada Economic Development Association. AEDA has been working with Kimco Realty, which owns the Northridge Shopping Center, to bring Whole Foods to town for a little more than two years  according to Petrykowska.

“They are currently under construction, and they’ve had a few minor (demolition) permits approved, so they’re just going through the site plan now and getting things rolling there,” Petrykowska said. “They did get their site plan amendment approved as well this year, and we’ll be kind of in construction mode for the foreseeable future.”

The location of the forthcoming grocery store is on the southwest corner of the shopping center, near the Chick-fil-A and the old Black and Read bookstore before their ongoing move down the street. The space was formerly a Hobby Lobby.

Petrykowska said that most of the renovation work will be aimed at making the site usable for a grocer.

“Just as with any grocery store, they’re having to install freezer and refrigerating areas for their produce and their food, and that’s probably going to be a big component of it,” Petrykowska said, “(along with) everything else that goes into the construction of a grocery store.”

Once opened, the Whole Foods will be the only location in Arvada, though there are nearby locations in Westminster, Lakewood and Golden.

The grocery chain faces steep competition in the local area, as the Northridge Shopping Center is already home to a Target and the adjacent shopping center at 77th Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard has both a Sprouts and a Natural Grocers.

Nevertheless, the social media response to the announcement of a Whole Foods has drawn considerable interest — though some have lamented the lack of Trader Joe’s in town in the wake of news that neighboring Westminster will be getting one in the near future.

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