Should This Huge Whole Foods Come to Alton & 19th Street?

Crescent Heights is proposing a 40,000 square foot Whole Foods Market and 4,500 square foot Wells Fargo Bank at the corner of Alton Road and 19th Street, topped with three very visible levels of parking, and a public plaza out front with a fountain, to complement the Sunset Harbour fountain across the street. Inside the store, a cafe will be located on an upper mezzanine. Renderings show solid stretches of Christmas colors. Green for Whole Foods. Red for Wells Fargo. White stucco.

Local activists are concerned about the traffic the 5,359 daily trips the store would generate. Then there's already a Fresh Market, Epicure, and two Publix Grocery Stores within a four block radius. The store's rather generic big box look, and the fact that all the parking is just right there, totally contrasts with the more imaginative and distinctive designs of those other grocery stores. (One Publix is historic. The other is a silvery Carlos Zapata-designed space ship. Fresh Market is urban and swanky. Epicure is cute and neighborly). The Miami Beach Planning Board will review it at their meeting on the 28th.

· Whole Foods Market coverage [Curbed Miami]