Whole Foods has announced that it is moving ahead with its first store in Brooklyn, according to an article at brownstoner.com.

The store will be located at the corner of 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue in Gowanus and will contain about 52,000 square feet of retail space, or about 25 percent less than originally planned.

The store will include a 40-foot esplanade that the article said presumably will be along the Gowanus Canal and it will also have a 20,000-square-foot greenhouse on its roof.

In an e-mail sent today by Mark Mobley of Whole Foods to Craig Hammerman, the district manager of Community Board 6 in Brooklyn, the grocery concern said that the company has "reduced the number of parking spaces on-site from 430 to 248, which eliminates our previous need for a separate parking structure and allows all of the parking to be at-grade in a surface parking lot. The store will feature parking for both energy efficient vehicles as well as specially designated recharging stations for electric powered vehicles. The lot will also include bike parking in front of the store and along the promenade. Whole Foods Market will also offer delivery for area residents."

"With parking now no longer needed on the store roof either," the communication continued, "we have been presented with the opportunity to include one of the most exciting and innovative features ever included in a Whole Foods Market: A 20,000 square foot greenhouse located on the roof of the store that will grow fresh, organic produce right on-site!"

"Rather than construct the store below-grade as previously proposed," the e-mail continued, "we now plan to build it above-grade, which will require a variance from the Board of Standards and Appeals due to the physical hardships associated with site development (there is a high water table and, as you know, environmental cleanup requirements on the property). These factors have a large impact on the development costs that will be encountered on this site."

"As always planned," it added, "the two-story, 19th century brick building situated at the property's corner at Third Avenue and Third Street - which is not owned by Whole Foods Market - will remain in place. The Whole Foods Market will 'jog' around the existing building at that corner and Whole Foods has committed to investing in improvements to the building that will include a new roof and exterior repairs."

"Finally," it concluded, "you should know that our commitment to local hiring, community investment and the creation of high-quality Whole Foods Market jobs (with excellent benefits) remains unchanged. This new store will create approx. 350 new jobs - fully 70% of which are expected to be full-time positions - and we look forward to working with you and other local stakeholders to ensure that the surrounding community has full access to these new opportunities."

More than five years after Whole Foods Market first trumpeted its plans to open a store on the Gowanus Canal, the upscale grocer has announced it will open the store in late 2012, according to an article today at crains.com by Marine Cole.

"The announcement comes after the site, which was formerly home to a number of auto repair shops and warehouses, has been thoroughly cleaned and remediated under guidelines of the New York State Department for Environmental Conservation's brownfield program," according to the article.