Erewhon Reveals Plans for Downtown Los Angeles Store

Erewhon is inching closer to selling its pricey smoothies in downtown Los Angeles.

The upscale grocery chain has filed plans to transform a vacant commercial building at 940 South Hill Street into its latest location in the city, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. Erewhon acquired the building through an affiliate last summer for $13.5 million.

Erewhon is looking to turn the Hill Street building into a roughly 17,500-square-foot supermarket containing grocery aisles and seating for up to 120 diners. The Vernon-based company has applied for a conditional use permit to sell alcohol on site. An existing rooftop lot with parking for up to 46 vehicles will remain intact for shoppers.

In addition to the grocery store, 940 South Hill will have a separate 5,826-square-foot ground-floor retail space and an 8,446-square-foot basement area. Both spaces currently do not have identified tenants, per Urbanize.

The efforts at 940 South Hill mark Erewhon’s second attempt at establishing operations in downtown L.A.

In 2018, Erewhon announced plans to open a store on the ground floor of a former May Company parking garage one block to the north at 9th and Hill Streets. By 2020, Erewhon abandoned that endeavor.

The new Erewhon market will be tucked between new developments over the past decade that have brought thousands of apartments and hotel rooms to the area. The 940 South Hill building sits between residential towers built by Onni Group to the north and south on Hill Street.

In 2015, before Erewhon floated its first iteration of a downtown L.A. store, the 940 South Hill property was proposed for a 20-story apartment tower from developer Dae Yong Lee. Those plans eventually collapsed when Lee was accused of bribing former City Council member Jose Huizar to approve the tower’s development. In 2022, Lee and the Lee-controlled company 940 Hill LLC were each found guilty of one count of honest services wire fraud, one count of bribery and one count of falsification of records in federal investigations. He was sentenced to six years in prison in 2023. — Chris Malone Méndez