Construction for the Whole Foods market at at the massive $700 million, 1 million-square-foot mixed-use project rising at 250 East 57th Street is complete, according to a statement from the World-Wide Group. The organic grocer has moved into their 39,000-square-foot space on the ground floor and begun building it out.
The site was a hole in the ground just two months ago.
The public-private partnership mixed-use project by World-Wide Group and the Educational Construction Fund will include two new schools, a 59-story residential tower with rental and condominium units, and 78,000 square feet of retail in addition to Whole Foods, which will have entrances on both 56th and 57th streets.
Whole Foods and the schools are slated to open in fall 2012.
Neighbors worry that too many mega-developments are underway on the same block, as a water main is being constructed by the city in the same time frame.
When the two schools, PS 59 and the High School of Art and Design, are completed, the second phase of construction will begin on the residential and retail portions of the development. A school at 250 East 63rd Street was built to house the students of PS 59 while the new school is constructed. The residential and additional retail portions of the development are set to open in 2014. — Guelda Voien