Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Whole Foods and Greenlife Grocery stores recently announced that Whole Foods was buying the Greenlife grocery store on Merrimon Avenue Asheville. There’s a rumor going around that Whole Foods also purchased the former Deal Motor site just up the street. I haven’t had a chance to check property records yet. Can anyone confirm this or knock this one down?
The eight-acre site of the old car dealership was purchased five years ago by a group of investors who paid $7.2 million for it and had big plans to develop it.
Here’s some of what the Asheville Citizen-Times reported in October 2005
A group of local investors bought the eight-acre Deal Motor Cars property just north of Chestnut Street for $7.2 million this summer and is looking at options for its development.
Partners are former Vice Mayor Chris Peterson, accountant Foster Shrinerand Cam andAnnette Pace, owners of Asheville Waste Paper. The partners have commissioned drawings that show condominiums, a large, multistory hotel and several thousand square feet of retail space on the property. Peterson and Shriner, however, said plans are not firm yet and development is still some time away.
“We’ve had a ton of calls on the property” from prospective users, Shriner said. “We’re really just all ears at this point. The most important thing to all of us is that it be beautiful and something Asheville can be proud of.”
Deal will leave the property in about a year and a half for property it is developing on Brevard Road, Peterson said.
The property’s size and location make it unique, said real estate agent John Spake, who is working with owners: “It’s eight acres on Merrimon Avenue and you just can’t assemble eight acres on Merrimon Avenue.” Development there will most likely have retail and residential components, he said.
As you might guess, the development plans were highly controversial. Neighbors were worried about the addition of a multi-story buildings and the impact the new development would have on traffic on an already crowded city street. But nothing ever happened. And now the property may lie in the hands of a new owner.
I’m busy with other stuff today, so if anyone has a chance to check property records or talk to the property owners, let me know.
If the deal is laced with hyperbole and deciet then it probably is Whole Foods. They are experts at hyperbole and deciet.
I heard it was Harris Teeter also. Total gossip, but…. a friend of mine was on a plane and the two people in front of her were talking and a woman said that she spoke to the HT manager at their south location and he said that they already had a store # for it.
My source, the one I mentioned this morning, confirmed YES! Under contract currently with Whole Foods to buy the property
I heard it might be a Harris Teeter. No real hard evidence though. Just a lead.
Tree, thanks for checking. I’ll see if I can track down someone at Whole Foods and/or one of the investors who bought the property five years ago.
Murphy, I don’t know if Foster’s wife was part of the team, but yes, she was the lightning rod for recent controversy over the way City Council handled her appointment to the city’s planning and zoning commission.
Wasn’t Fosters’ wife a part of the "team" too … and she was a member of the UDO or something similar which sort of started a conflict of interest stink around her inclusion in a group of developers.
If they did purchase it, there’s nothing in the county records yet.