Whole Foods to open second store in valley

Jennifer Shubinski

Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2004 | 10:51 a.m.

Whole Foods Market Inc. plans to open its second Las Vegas Valley-area store in the Green Valley Ranch district of Henderson.

Whole Foods, a specialty grocery store that sells natural and organic foods, plans to open a 50,000-square-foot store in Henderson by late 2005 or early 2006.

The store will be at the southeast corner of Green Valley Parkway and Interstate 215, across the street from the new shopping center The District at Green Valley Ranch.

"With the great success of our store in Summerlin and the Las Vegas market in general, we wanted to bring a second store to the area," Marci Frumkin, Whole Foods marketing director, said Tuesday. "This store (Henderson) will have even more new and creative venues."

The existing Las Vegas Whole Foods store employs between 150 to 200 people, Frumkin said. The Henderson store would employ about the same number.

The vacant parcel where Whole Foods will be located -- long planned for commercial development -- and The District are owned by American Nevada Company, where officials could not be reached for comment. American Nevada is owned by the Greenspun family, owner of the Las Vegas Sun.

Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods opened a 40,000-square-foot store to the east of Summerlin, at 8855 W. Charleston Blvd. at Rampart Boulevard in August, and company officials said the store has been a huge success.

"Customers are happy to have all the options we provide, whether it's great prepared foods, organic beef, gourmet cheeses, hard-to-find wine, gluten-free snacks -- we've got something for everyone," Frumkin said, adding there are no local expansion plans beyond the Henderson store.

The planned Henderson store location is less than 1 mile from two Smith's Food & Drug stores, one north of I-215 on Green Valley Parkway, the other south of I-215 on Valle Verde Drive.

Traditional grocery stores are having increasing difficulty competing in the growing Southern Nevada marketplace, with the onslaught of Wal-Mart, its soon-to-open Neighborhood Market concept and the growing popularity of such stores as Whole Foods, Wild Oats and Trader Joe's.

Vons announced last week that it would close three Las Vegas grocery stores -- one closed Aug. 15 -- and Food 4 Less officials said they too would be closing one store in the coming months.