Edward Gellert, managing member of developer R Squared EDGE of New York City, says that Whole Foods Market joins anchor tenant Fortunoff and the Cheesecake Factory at The Source at White Plains, which is a $95 million, 260,000-sf retail development currently under construction. The development is located directly across the street from the Westchester Mall. At present, a total of 25,000 sf of space is still available at the project.

Patrick Smith of The Staubach Company represented Whole Foods Market in the transaction.

While Whole Foods Markets will open in the spring of next year, ribbon cuttings will be held in the next few months for the planned opening of Fortunoff's 180,000-sf store and Cheesecake Factory's 12,000-sf location. Both stores are scheduled to open this September.

The Source at White Plains, is a development of R Squared EDGE, in partnership with Fortunoff, and comprises what was the site of a Saks Fifth Avenue store. Saks closed the underperforming store in late 2001 and sold the property to Fortunoff. Construction on The Source at White Plains began last March.

Commenting on the deal, Gellert says, "We appreciate this retailer's interest in joining Fortunoff in serving the dense and affluent neighboring communities. We are excited to realize our objectives of creating a retail center whose tenant base is made up of a best-in-class of their respective categories, and where each tenant in its own right is truly a destination attraction."

He adds that he is confident the development will attain 100% occupancy, "in short order."

Whole Foods Market is headquartered in Austin, TX., and has 143 locations and 23,000 employees nationwide. Locally, the publicly-held company operates two stores in New York State (in Manhattan at 250 Seventh Ave. and in Manhasset at 2101 Northern Blvd.) The firm also has a store in Greenwich, CT. and six stores in New Jersey.

R Squared EDGE invests in retail, residential, storage, commercial loft and hotel properties in the New York Tri-State area and currently has more than one million sf of development and redevelopment projects under way. In addition to The Source at White Plains, the firm is undertaking a major refurbishment and repositioning program at the Deegan Gateway development in the Bronx, a 432,000-sf commercial loft building.