Whole Foods breaks ground in Schererville, eyes Valparaiso

The upscale grocery chain has been opening 10 supermarkets a year in the Midwest, and aims to open a 40,000-square-foot store next summer in the new Shops on Main retail center at Indianapolis Boulevard and Main Street in Schererville. Construction kicked off Thursday with a groundbreaking ceremony.

Whole Foods is a best-of-class store whose unique product offerings can draw customers from as far as an hour away, said Nicholas Wibbenmeyer, senior vice president for Regency Centers, which developed Shops on Main along with Highland-based Boyer Properties. The presence of the high-end supermarket, which specializes in organic and natural foods, has sparked a lot of interest in the remaining seven acres on the site.

"It's an important piece of the puzzle to keep building what we think will be the best shopping center in Northwest Indiana," he said.

The Texas-based grocer, which is known for its organic produce, antibiotic-free meat and sustainably sourced seafood, is looking to grow more in Indiana, where it has locations in Indianapolis, Carmel, and Mishawaka.

"We're always looking for new communities where we can be of service," spokeswoman Allison Phelps said. "There will be other stores throughout the state in the future. Expansion throughout Indiana is a plan for the future. We're just not sure where those stores will be, other than Schererville and downtown Indianapolis."

Valparaiso is a target. Whole Foods Midwest Region President Michael Bashaw has a friend who lives in Valpo who tells Bashaw every time he visits he is an "idiot" for not opening a store there.

"I think that Valparaiso is on our sights," Bashaw said. "It's not necessarily always about wanting to be somewhere. It's also 'is there a site available?' 'Is there a deal?' Real estate's interesting. It's challenging. There are places we want to go, but there just isn't a site available."

Whole Foods lucked out that a prominent space was available at Shops on Main center, the $112 million shopping hub that added more than 200,000 square feet of retail space at a busy intersection, Bashaw said.

"If you think about it, we're lucky here," he said. "Everyone wants to be in the same space, meaning everyone wants to be on the main drag. They want to have enough land for parking and access. Often, someone's already in that spot. So sometimes you have to be patient."

The chain is growing fast nationally to cater to a growing demand for healthier food, Bashaw said. Whole Foods currently has 385 locations but should have around 416 by the time the Schererville store opens next year, Bashaw said.

"Natural foods are everywhere now," he said. "The concept is copied everywhere. The demand for the product – natural and organic foods and flavors – is strong. The American people have shifted the way they eat over the last few years."

Not every company can say that people are truly happy when they come to a neighborhood, Bashaw said. But one of the most frequent complaints he hears is from people who want a Whole Foods closer to home. He was at the grand opening at the Mishawaka supermarket, where a woman had driven about an hour from Kalamazoo, Mich. She chastised him for not opening a Whole Foods in her city and didn't believe Bashaw when he told her he was too busy opening already planned locations.

The chain currently has 45 stores in the Midwest region, and will grow to having 65 stores over the next 30 months, based on signed leases, Bashaw said.

"I really can't open them faster than we're already doing," he said. "The hard part is the people. The people make Whole Foods what it is. The hardest part is finding them and training them. We don't want to go faster than what we can do. Otherwise, the stores wouldn't be authentic Whole Foods."

The Schererville location will have a butcher, a fishmonger, a bakery and a team of chefs making take-out meals. The store will feature a full grocery and body section, where shoppers can buy natural and organic shampoo, cosmetics, and other body care items that are free of chemicals found in traditional over-the-counter products.

All the products at Whole Foods will be free of artificial colors, flavors and preservatives, Phelps said.

The Schererville store also will have some of the freshest Whole Foods produce in Chicagoland, since it is only five miles away from the distribution center in Munster. Some of the first deliveries will be dropped off in Schererville, and that could especially make a difference when it snows.

"It's certainly better for the people who will shop there," he said. "The freshness here should be first-rate."

Construction on the new store could take as long as a year.

Shops on Main, which was first conceived of as a lifestyle center in 2007 but was delayed for years during the Great Recession, is currently 97 percent leased out. A second phase of construction will be built on seven acres of available land on the southeast side of the site.

"We envisioned this a long time ago," Boyer Properties President Bruce Boyer said. "We always look forward, not backwards."