July 30, 2015

Whole Foods Kirkland store; 365 coming to Bellevue Square

KIRKLAND — Whole Foods Market announced plans to open a store in Kirkland, which will be the company's 12th Washington location.

The store will be 40,000-square-feet and located in the Village at Totem Lake, formerly Totem Lake Mall. It is anticipated to open in the summer of 2017, and will be the first Whole Foods Market in Kirkland.

CenterCal Properties of El Segundo, California is redeveloping The Village at Totem Lake, which will include a theater, residential units, office space and retail. Jean Paul Wardy, president of CenterCal Properties, said in a press release the store will be a welcome addition to the 800,000-square-foot redevelopment project.

“We're so excited to be joining the community in Kirkland and we look forward to sharing our mission and values with our new neighbors,“ said Joe Rogoff, Whole Foods' president of the Pacific Northwest region.

Whole Foods also announced its first 365 by Whole Foods Market store in Washington will be at Bellevue Square. The value-oriented store is slated to open in the second half of 2016 in the new South Commons section of Bellevue Square, the former JC Penney site.

Bellevue is among the first five markets to get a 365 by Whole Foods. The others are Portland, Houston, Los Angeles and Santa Monica, California.

“We are thrilled to be the location of choice for the first 365 by Whole Foods Market in Washington and we know it will be a highly anticipated addition for shoppers, residents and office workers within The Bellevue Collection and the surrounding community,” said Kemper Freeman, chairman and CEO of Kemper Development Co., Bellevue Square's owner. “Our earliest roots of Bellevue Square's history featured a very successful grocery component and we are excited to once again have this opportunity for our guests.”

The Associated Press reported yesterday that Whole Foods cut its sales forecast for the year after its quarterly profit and sales fell short of expectations amid intensifying competition.

The company said sales in existing stores edged up 1.3 percent for the three-month period ended July 5. That's down from the 3.9 percent increase in the year-ago period.

In the current quarter so far, the company said sales were up just 0.6 percent.

For the full fiscal year, Whole Foods now expects sales at established locations to rise in the low single digit percentages, down from the previous forecast of growth in the low- to mid-single digits.

For the third quarter ended July 5, the company earned $154 million, or 43 cents per share. That included an expense of a penny per share in relation to California's new paid sick leave law.

Analysts expected 45 cents per share, according to Zacks Investment Research.

Total revenue was $3.63 billion, also short of the $3.7 billion analysts expected.

A year ago the company earned $151 million, or 41 cents per share, on revenue of $3.38 billion.

Shares of Whole Foods dropped 10 percent to $36.90 in after-hours trading.