Lower East Side draws biggest Whole Foods

The biggest Whole Foods in the five boroughs will open in 2007 as part of The Avalon Chrystie Place development at Houston Street and the Bowery on the Lower East Side. The rest of the development — which includes a community center, retail space, and rental apartments — will open by this spring, and the community center will include the only indoor swimming pool on the Lower East Side. The approximately $14 million center, which is connected to the rental part of the development and not to the retail space, will operate through a partnership of nonprofits University Settlement Society of New York and the YMCA. AvalonBay, a national REIT specializing in rental development, provided about $10 million for the center as part of its bid with the city to build on the site.