365 by Whole Foods to Bring Cheapish Groceries to Oakland’s Temescal Neighborhood

Whole Foods already has a strong grip on the East Bay grocery store scene, with large, luxurious locations in North Berkeley and near Lake Merritt, plus a smaller store in South Berkeley. Now it is bringing a new, cheaper option to Oakland, in the form of 365 by Whole Foods Market.

The new store will take up the bottom floor retail space of a development in the heart of Temescal, at 51st and Telegraph (5110 Telegraph Ave.). The six-story development, which hasn’t begun construction yet, will offer 28,000-square-feet for the grocery store and additional retail footage, plus 204 apartment units above. On the roof will be an urban farm from Top Leaf Farms, which could potentially provide produce to the store below.

Differentiating it from other stores is a streamlined offering, with more packaged items, and grab-and-go sections that bypass the need for cheese/deli/meat counters. In theory, this makes it a cheaper option than traditional Whole Foods stores, though surely one can still easily spend their whole paycheck.

This will be the third Bay Area location of the chain, which is working on locations in SF’s Nob Hill neighborhood (in the former Lombardi Sports building on Polk), and Concord. The first location of the chain opened last year in LA’s Silverlake neighborhood.

Currently the building is projected to be completed and ready for occupancy at the end of 2018; stay tuned for more updates.

• 365, Whole Foods' Cheaper Store, Applying for Nob Hill Space [ESF]
• Modern Oakland Development with a Rooftop Farm Ready for Review [Socketsite]
• 5110 Telegraph Ave. Development Project [Nautilus Group]