Arlington County last week approved plans for Whole Foods to renovate to its Clarendon store to make room for a new walk-up coffee and gelato bar, a wine cellar and wine tasting room, and a second-floor seating area.
The County Board approved the upscale grocery store’s plans to add about 905 square feet to its store and move its existing seating area to an upstairs space that now houses offices.
The current seating area would be converted to accommodate an expanded prepared foods section, according to county documents.
A Whole Foods spokeswoman declined to elaborate further on the plans, saying only that nothing has been confirmed.
County planner Thomas Miller said the approval was contingent upon Whole Foods making some changes to the Wilson Boulevard side of its store, including opening up the door there for public use and converting some of its display windows into transparent windows that would provide a view into the store from the street.
“The stuff they have in the display windows is kind of dated, dusty,” Miller said. “They would open three of the four windows and use the fourth as a display and to store some cooking equipment.”
The 39,000-square-foot grocery store opened in Clarendon in 1996 under the name Bread & Circus and has not changed in size since then.
The county-approved plans would add 240 square feet to the first floor on the side that faces the parking lot, mostly to accommodate the coffee and gelato bar, and stairs and an elevator that would lead to the second-floor mezzanine.
The county approved about 665 square feet for the second floor, which would be used for the seating area, wine cellar and wine tasting room.
According to Miller, county civic associations had few objections to the plans.
“The community was pretty happy with it,” he said.
