Photo by Jeremy Brooks.

Photo by Jeremy Brooks.

Residents of Glover Park miss their Whole Foods.

On Saturday at Glover Park Day, a fence at Guy Mason Playground was filled with white sheets of paper full of reasons why they want the chain grocery back: “I need a place to buy great yogurt;” “Our kids love it;” “We need a neighborhood store.”

The store has been closed down for more than a year now, since it was shut down twice in two months at the start of 2017 by the Department of Health for problems with rodents. In March of last year, the store announced that it would be closing for a remodel meant to get rid of the pest issues for good.

The only problem: the owner of the building where Whole Foods is housed, Wical Limited Partnership, won’t sign off on the renovations. As The Current reports, D.C. law requires that the proprieter sign off on the remodel. Whole Foods and Wical are currently embroiled in a legal battle over the remodel that has prevented the store from reopening for more than a year.

Residents, predictably, are not happy about this. There’s a petition circulating asking Wical to acquiesce to the remodel so the neighborhood can have its store back. It has more than 1,300 signatures.

“Whole Foods Market has been a fixture in the Glover Park community for more than 20 years. Our community has relied on the natural grocer for its quality offerings (and its effect on our property values), and now its re-opening relies on community action,” the petition reads. “Additionally, retailers on Wisconsin Avenue in Glover Park have suffered greatly with a drop-off of foot traffic which was previously driven by the Whole Foods. We fear that these tenants will ultimately be forced to close their doors if foot traffic does not revert to historical levels soon.”

Filed Under: glover park, whole foods,