Whole Foods, Ellisburg Circle Facelifts Get OK from Planning Board

While it’s still months before Whole Foods opens its doors at the Ellisburg Circle Shopping Center, the center’s ownership revealed plans to give the grocery’s home—and eventually the entire center—a major facelift, which were approved unanimously by the Cherry Hill planning board Monday night.

Part of what Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRIT) representatives called at least a three-phase project, the improvements call for the old Geunardi’s façade—now a blank expanse of brick and stucco—to come down and be replaced by a mixture of brick, stonework, composite panel work and a swath of glass across the entryway.

Along with an outdoor seating area, bike racks and a canopy over the sidewalk, the exterior work for Whole Foods is designed to make the grocery Ellisburg’s vibrant showpiece, representatives said.

“Being the main anchor, we want that to be the focus of the entire center,” said David Joss, FRIT’s development manager.

While planning board members questioned whether the proposed improvements would fit in with the center as a whole, Joss noted there are plans in the works to remake the façades across Ellisburg, but on a different schedule than Whole Foods, which could have its exterior work done and the interior handed over to the grocery chain by September.

“It will all tie togther…there’s definitely going to be a lag time,” Joss said, estimating the rest of the center would need until November, pending future approval of those plans.

Whole Foods itself doesn’t have an exact date for opening, pending the façade improvements and interior work, which could take some time after FRIT hands over the space to the grocer, a company official said. An early 2014 opening seems likely, though.

“I think that’s a fair statement,” said Mark Hughes, Whole Foods’ construction coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic region. “Until they tender it to us, it’s kind of abstract.”

The 47,000-square-foot store would be slightly larger than Whole Foods’ Marlton store on Route 73, which was renovated to be just over 40,000 square feet, Hughes said.

It’ll be the 13th store in New Jersey for the Texas-based grocer, which operates 340 stores in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.

The Ellisburg store will have electric car charging stations added to the parking lot, and, like other locations, will most likely run a farmers market in a portion of the parking lot once a week during the spring, summer and early fall, Hughes said.

“It’s a community service we’re offering,” he said. “We want everybody to buy local all the time…that’s the reason we do it.”

Other pieces of the plan, including signs for Whole Foods and possible changes to the Ellisburg Circle tower sign, should be up for consideration before the planning board in the coming months, representatives said.

Planning board members voiced their support for both Whole Foods coming to the township, as well as the new look for the shopping center, which first opened in 1956.

“It looks like the improvements…will dramatically improve the shopping center,” John Osorio said. “I know that’ll make the neighbors very happy.”