UPDATE: Brace yourselves — Whole Foods announced a date!!!

There's no bigger sign that downtown Los Angeles is no longer the open-air feces factory it once was than the arrival of Whole Foods.

Pat yourselves on the back: Gentrification complete!

On Friday downtown city Councilman Jose Huizar and Whole Foods Market will announce the opening date for a 41,000-square-foot flagship store going up at 770 Grand Avenue.

Don't all orgasm at once, you loft-dwelling yuppies. You often say Not In My Backyard when someone wants to build housing for the otherwise homeless, yeah?

But you'd never say that to Camembert cheese, organic kale and cranberry pistachio oatmeal cookies. 

We kid. Enjoy your overpriced produce, downtowners.


Huizar is excited because the store will add 150 jobs to his district. The councilman is taking credit for helping the market get through City Hall red tape. Here's what he told us:

My office was happy to help bring Whole Foods Market to downtown and we will continue working with them through the various city processes so they can meet their goals and open as soon as possible. They are a fantastic addition to a dynamic, vibrant and growing neighborhood and I have no doubt that Whole Foods Market will very quickly become an integral part of downtown Los Angeles.

The store is part of a 700-unit luxury apartment complex. Because L.A.—per capita single-earner income $27,900—needs more luxury apartments.

Whole Foods claims that, before it found the site at Eighth Street and Grand Avenue, it had been searching for proper downtown digs for 10 years.

So this upscale grocery store was on downtown's jock before most of you were. Think about that.

Credit: Whole Foods

Credit: Whole Foods

The big announcement happens Friday an 9 a.m. outside the future Whole Foods, according to Huizar's office:

A ceremony will commemorate the city turning the property over to Whole Foods Market to continue construction and create a store full of the latest and greatest for residents and professionals of downtown Los Angeles. As Whole Foods Market does in every community in which they open, they will partner with like-minded organizations to foster and support local non-profits, suppliers, businesses and residents to support community development. 

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