Brooklyn Whole Foods faces City Council vote next week

Next week, the fate of Whole Foods Market’s first Brooklyn outpost will be largely decided, when two City Council panels vote on whether to grant the variances needed for the project to move forward, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The vacant Coignet building, at the corner of Third Avenue and 3rd Street in the Gowanus neighborhood, is the landmarked building at the center of the debate. The proposed store would wrap around the historic building, and its lot size would need to be decreased in order for construction to begin.

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Though some preservationists, such as the Historic Districts Council, a lobbying organization, have objected to shrinking the lot of the Coignet building, the City Council’s landmarks and planning commissions — the two panels that will vote next week — are expected to approve the plans.

The Whole Foods would open in 2013 and span 52,000 feet, if all goes as planned. [WSJ]