Whole Foods Will Take Former Randalls in W'chase

HOUSTON—Whole Foods Market will relocate and expand into a space formerly occupied by Randalls Food Markets across the street from its current Westchase District location, Weingarten Realty Investors announced Friday when reporting its second-quarter results. Weingarten is the landlord on both the current and future Whole Foods locations, and the REIT said Friday it was in discussions about filling the natural products retailer’s current space in the Market at Westchase.

Whole Foods will occupy 45,000 square feet at Weingarten’s Westchase Shopping Center and is expected to open the new store in early 2016; its current location is 25,663 square feet. Weingarten will also need to fill the unused Randalls space at Westchase Shopping Center. “Once the redevelopment is complete, we estimate we’ll pick up a net of $10 million in net asset value,” Johnny Hendrix, the REIT’s EVP and COO, and chief operating officer, said on a Q2 conference call.