Whole Foods downsizing regional headquarters in new Denver move

Whole Foods is taking a bite out of some LoDo office real estate as it relocates its regional headquarters.

But the grocer doesn’t have the appetite it once did — it’s slashing its footprint by nearly 25,000 square feet.

Whole Foods is building out a 13,500-square-foot office on the third and fourth floors of 1500 Wynkoop St., permit filings show. It will replace the company’s office at 3012 Huron St. in Union Station North, which The Denver Post reported in 2016 comprises 38,000 square feet.

A company spokeswoman confirmed the deal to BusinessDen, saying the firm was moving its “store support offices” to 1500 Wynkoop St., but declined to comment further.

The permits show the company occupying the entire third floor and about half of the fourth floor of the five-story, roughly 50,000-square-foot building. NAI Shames Makovsky has been advertising space in the building for between $35 and $38 a square foot annually, plus operating expenses of $15 a foot.

The Velvet Cellar, a wine and cocktail lounge, recently took space on the building’s ground floor.

The property is known as the Saddlery building; it once was home to Colorado Saddlery, a purveyor of saddles, spurs and other cowboy supplies. The business moved over a decade ago and now operates in Westminster.

First constructed in 1909, the building underwent a $6.2 million renovation in 2011, according to the architecture firm that did the work.