Whole Foods Opening In Wayne

WAYNE, NJ — Whole Foods will move into the former A&P location in the Valley Ridge Shopping Center on Valley Road, Mayor Chris Vergano announced Wednesday night.

It will be the first Whole Foods store in Passaic County.

Vergano said Whole Foods signed a lease Wednesday for the 36,000-square-foot space and would be applying to the Planning Board shortly for site plan approval. Once the application is complete, the board would hear the application.

"We are very excited that Whole Foods has decided to open a store in Wayne," Vergano said. "This will be a huge benefit to the senior citizen complexes located nearby and our entire community."

Vergano said the town has been working with the shopping center's owner, Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc., and Whole Foods "for months."

"We're very happy that everything came together," Vergano said.

Vergano did not comment on a possible opening date.

Whole Foods will be the anchor store for the shopping center. The vacant storefront has been an eyesore ever since A&P moved out.

Urstadt Biddle's President Willing Biddle previously said the company had a lease with someone to put a Korean market in the vacant spot, but the tenant defaulted on their lease and had to be evicted.

The closest Whole Foods stores to Wayne are in Ridgewood, Montclair, and West Orange.

Related: Market Opening Soon At Former Wayne A&P Site
Related: Wayne A&P Receives No Bids In Bankruptcy Auction: Report
Related: Bergen County-Based A And P Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection

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