From the November issue: Any new Whole Foods Markets in New York City are going to be a Whole Lot Smaller. The company that made a big mark on Manhattan four years ago with a sprawling 60,000-square-foot Columbus Circle store has dramatically slashed its ideal store size for new locations to 25,000 to 35,000 square feet, according to Northwest Atlantic Partners’ executive vice president Chase Welles, the grocer’s New York-based broker. The $8 billion Austin, Texas-based supermarket chain, which has been struggling, is also negotiating with developers to find a partner that would handle construction on its site along Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal at Third Avenue and 3rd Street. After shelling out $4.9 million for the 2.1-acre parcel in 2005, Whole Foods has been bedeviled by toxins at the site as well as public spats over a landmarked structure there.
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