Dec 23, 2013
Whole Foods Opens Brooklyn Store With Greenhouse

Last week, Whole Foods Market opened its first store in Brooklyn, N.Y. The new store has 20,000 sq. ft. greenhouse on its rooftop where fresh produce will be grown to be sold in the store as well as at other Whole Food locations.

Last week, Whole Foods Market opened its first store in Brooklyn, N.Y. The new store has 20,000 sq. ft. Nexus Atrium greenhouse on its rooftop where fresh produce will be grown to be sold in the store as well as at other Whole Food locations.

The greenhouse or “urban garden,” operated by Gotham Greens, is scheduled to open in February.

According to the Brooklyn Eagle, Whole Foods Market expects the greenhouse to grow more than150 tons of fresh produce annually.

The store will be “very Brooklyn-centric” with more than 100 local vendors selling 200+ different products grown or manufactured locally. In addition to the rooftop greenhouse, the store also has a rooftop bar that offers 15 beers on tap, a bike repair station, bike parking, a knife sharpening booth, a juice bar and a vinyl records section.

The new store was constructed with many other green technologies in mind including such things as solar panels to provide 25 percent of the building’s energy, wind turbines to power the parking lot lights and reclaimed bricks for the building’s facade.

Click here to see Whole Foods Market’s video on its sustainability initiatives for the new store.