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Combined with the development of Hillsdale Drive Extended, construction of the new 40,000-square-foot Whole Foods grocery store has dotted Hydraulic Road with orange cones and construction signs for months. But Alan Taylor, Vice President of River Bend Management, Inc., expects the outer shell of the new store to be complete by December or January.
River Bend Management is the real estate company of developer and Dave Matthews Band manager Coran Capshaw, and oversees Meadowbrook Creek, LLC, developer of the Whole Foods project. Expect 242 parking spots for Whole Foods customers and a grand opening slated for next summer.
A new traffic light is also under construction, to ease traffic flow between Route 29 and the up-and-coming Hillsdale Drive Extended. The first phase of Hillsdale should open before the store does.
In April, the Hydraulic Road Kmart filed a lawsuit against Meadowbrook Creek, also its landlord. The suit claimed that construction of the Whole Foods store and Hillsdale breaches the lease agreement between Meadowbrook and Kmart. Ultimately, the Charlottesville City Circuit Court refused Kmart’s request for injunctive relief. According to Taylor, “We continue to believe that Kmart’s claims are unfounded."
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