Is Crystal City getting a grocery store back, after the closure of Amazon Fresh and the aborted effort to open a Trader Joe’s?
Maybe.
An eagle-eyed ARLnow reader walking around the neighborhood before the snow last night noted a new Virginia ABC permit application posted outside the former Amazon Fresh store at 1550 Crystal Drive, which closed in April.
The permit application, to offer alcohol for consumption on and off premises, was filed by another Amazon company: Whole Foods Market.
“Hopefully we’re getting something good in the neighborhood!” the anonymous tipster remarked.
Amazon Fresh opened in July 2022 after a long dearth of grocery stores in Crystal City. While there are several in Pentagon City, including a Whole Foods a half mile away at 520 12th Street S., one of Arlington’s most populated neighborhoods lacks its own walkable store for local residents.
That may be about to change. The permit does not 100% indicate whether Whole Foods is indeed opening a grocery store that’s just a 10 minute walk from its Pentagon City location, but such an ABC permit in roughly 90-95% of cases does precede the listed establishment opening in a given location.
There was insufficient time before publication to give Whole Foods an opportunity to comment, but ARLnow will be following up with the company.
There was, at one point, supposed to be a Trader Joe’s on the other side of Crystal City at 2450 Crystal Drive. Despite Virginia ABC and construction permit applications, however, the store never opened and, we’re told, was scrapped by the quirky grocery chain.
