There have been several rumors floating around for the last several months about a grocery store potentially occupying space on the base floor of the vacant J.C. Penny space at Bellevue Square. Over the last week this continued to be reinforced based on market research being facilitated by the Bellevue Collection via the telephone asking residents if they would be interested in a Whole Foods at Bellevue Square, according to a report in the Bellevue Reporter. It’s unclear if Whole Foods is actually looking to move their Bellevue Store to this new location, add a second store, or if the Whole Foods name is just being used as a place holder to see there is interest in having a grocery store at all. We have reached out to Whole Foods for comment, but at this time they have not responded.
During a conversation with a City of Bellevue employee a few months ago the idea of having a grocery store at this location was also echoed, as it was something that the Bellevue Collection was looking into.
We want to hear from you, the readers. Would you like to see a Whole Foods, or a like-caliber grocery store at the base floor of Bellevue Square where J.C. Penny used to be located?
Costco, PCC or Whole Foods.
Whole foods would be amazing!!! Any grocery store would be great!
Whole Foods, Target or Trader Joes!!
I think the prepared food section like the hot and cold bar of Whole Foods would be good there. I most likely would not grocery shop there. It sounds miserable fighting mall traffic, parking far away and then lugging groceries through the mall to get back to your parking spot. The current Whole Foods and QFC parking lots are bad enough. Both are a mess.
It would be a nice amenity for those living in Lincoln Square. I can just see shopping carts going across the skybridges 🙂
Remember, that KDC now owns the NW corner of 8th and Bellevue Way, where a grocery store would make much more sense, at least temporarily.
Perhaps it’s the second coming of “Your Local Market”!
Dean and Deluca please and thank you!
I’m a little concerned that a grocery store will bring in the poors. Not as customers, but as employees. Better to have more high end boutiques – fewer poors working there.
Please oh please not a Walmart
Metropolitan Market wants to move in that spot. Problem they have is how to get people in and out of the parking lot quickly. They don’t want the grocery parking lot used by the rest of the mall shoppers.
When I read the news that JCPenney was closing down, I thought it would be a dream come true if the place could be occupied by T&T Supermarket like the one in Metrotown mall in Vancouver/Burnaby, BC. The Metrotown/Metropolis Mall is way bigger and more prosperous than Bellevue Square. The supermarket probably contributes some extra foot traffic to the mall. That’s good for the mall as see Bellevue Square had few shoppers on regular days. The Southcenter mall near the airport may seem messy but there is certainly more shoppers on a regular day. The Seafood City Market probably helped. If I were in the mall management, I wouldn’t try to have a supermarket like Wholefoods which has a store near by already. I would try to lure a market that people are willing to travel far for it.
If a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s opened there, I’d absolutely shop there every week. However, I’m sure it would make traffic on 4th and Bellevue Way – and parking – a nightmare.
Whole Foods on NE 8th & 116th is already overwhelmed so a 2nd store would be awesome ! I’m “assuming” upscale grocery store means ORGANIC. No need for any other type of grocery store otherwise as already have QFC & Safeway in close proximity.
Traffic will be fine
We don’t have a Trader Joe’s downtown and that’s the perfect fit for our single professional apartment dwellers!!!
Boris,
Are you also known as anon?
So – the people that work in a grocery store are not to be allowed to live in Bellevue?
Where do you get your groceries? Or do you have slaves to do that for you?
amous
amous – correct, correct, stores, and no.
Amous –
Please don’t feed the trolls.
Rather have trolls as opposed to poors milling around our clean streets.
I think it should be an open year-round farmers market like pike place. Open it up and have stands in there with fresh produce, flowers, seafood– and have the vendors change with the season (also similar to pike place). Have an area included for live music in the summer and wine tastings on Fridays/Saturdays. Make Bellevue less park-and-go-in-and-get-out, and more like Seattle, where you park and then spend the day here on foot– make Bellevue more of an experience.
Plus– this is the perfect location for a farmers market style set-up, as the downtown park is RIGHT THERE, making it very easy for people to visit both venues.
Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s would be great! Our current Whole Foods is always packed full, so this would really help. Also, the idea for an ongoing Famers Market is wonderful.
Well, I bet this is the answer:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/whole-foods-lower-cost-store/story?id=30871431
It makes NO sense whatsoever to put a grocery store in Bellevue Square!!