Signs are up at the Whole Foods coming soon to St. Charles

Literal signs of progress are now visible at the soon-to-be Whole Foods in downtown St. Charles.

Whole Foods purchased the building of the former Blue Goose Market in June 2023, and renovations to the building at 300 S. Second St. and adjacent parking lot have been underway this summer.

St. Charles community development director Russel Colby said progress is on schedule to open next spring as originally planned.

“Everything is pretty much on the schedule we had hoped,” Colby said.

The work was broken into two phases. The first phase, completed by the previous property owners, included parking lot and streetscape improvements as well as the interior demolition of the store.

With the parking lot renovations complete and the interior of the store gutted, ownership was turned over to Whole Foods last month, signifying the start of the second phase.

The first visible progress of the second phase was the installation of Whole Foods logos on the storefront and the pylon sign along Route 31.

Colby said during first phase, the interior was stripped down to basically an empty shell, and now in phase two, Whole Foods has started what will be a complete rebuild, with new floors, utilities and all new equipment. He said most of the major exterior work is complete, with a few finishing details left to be completed in the spring.

Colby is hopeful the new grocer will be a catalyst for increasing visitors and bringing new businesses to the under-utilized sites surrounding the store.

“I think we’re expecting that it’s going to be a big draw, in terms of bringing visitors and customers into the downtown area,” Colby said. “It also has the potential impact to attract other types of development or other businesses around the site.”