Whole Foods Is Coming to Queens With 22K-SF Deal
By Isabelle Durso December 11, 2025 1:31 pm
reprints
Whole Foods is about to open its first grocery store in Queens, Commercial Observer has learned.
Whole Foods, a supermarket chain owned by Amazon, has signed a lease for approximately 22,000 square feet on the lower level and ground floor of Norse Realty Group’s 55-60 Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood, according to city records made public Wednesday and a source with knowledge of the deal.
The deal represents Whole Foods’ first foray into Queens, after debuting its first store in Manhattan in 2001 and opening dozens more locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn since then.
The length of the lease and asking rent were unclear, but data from CoStar found retail rents in Ridgewood averaged $52.25 per square foot during the third quarter of 2025.
Ripco Real Estate’s Evan Schuckman brokered the deal for the landlord, while it was unclear who represented the tenant. Ripco declined to comment, while spokespeople for Whole Foods and Norse Realty Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Whole Foods will replace a former Rite Aid in its new Queens spot at the three-way intersection of Myrtle Avenue, Cypress Avenue and Cornelia Street. Other retail tenants near the three-story building include Target, Burlington, Blink Fitness, Bath & Body Works, CityMD, Walgreens and CVS.
News of the deal comes amid a recent jump in retail business in Queens, with stores in Jamaica and Flushing reporting a total of 170,000 visitors on Black Friday 2024 — an increase of more than 11,000 visitors since the previous year, the New York Post reported last month.
The deal also comes as Whole Foods expands its presence a bit more in the outer boroughs. In April, the grocery chain signed a 12-year lease for 10,707 square feet for a bodega-like market at 774 Grand Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as CO previously reported.
Also in April, Whole Foods announced two more openings of smaller shops in Manhattan, including one 10,000-square-foot location at 409 East 14th Street in the East Village’s Stuyvesant Town development, and one 8,500-square-foot store at 301 West 50th Street in Hell’s Kitchen.
Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.
