ENCINITAS — Whole Foods Market is returning to Encinitas nearly a decade after closing its only store in the city, with plans to open a new location at Encinitas Marketplace as part of a multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the shopping center.
The natural and organic grocery chain will occupy a portion of the former Kohl’s department store at 134 N. El Camino Real, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, a commercial real estate and investment management firm marketing the property.
The store is identified as “coming soon,” but an opening date has not been announced.
The new store will anchor a major overhaul of Encinitas Marketplace, a 124,411-square-foot shopping center at the southwest corner of El Camino Real and Via Molena. The project includes approximately $10 million in renovations over the next two years, featuring upgraded storefronts and exterior improvements intended to modernize the 45-year-old retail center.
Kohl’s served as the center’s primary anchor tenant until its closure in April 2025.
The return marks a homecoming of sorts for Whole Foods, which previously operated a store at Pacific Station near South Coast Highway 101 from 2011 to 2017 — one of nine nationwide locations the company closed shortly before its acquisition by Amazon.
The Encinitas store is one of several new Whole Foods locations planned in San Diego County, including locations in Carmel Mountain Ranch and downtown San Diego.
The arrival of Whole Foods brings a grocery store back to a shopping center that originally opened in 1981 as Wiegand Plaza. Over the years, the center’s anchor tenants have included Alpha Beta, Lucky Stores and Albertsons before Kohl’s took over the space.
The redevelopment is being designed by Long Beach-based architecture firm RDC, which was behind Del Mar Highlands Town Center, Fashion Valley and other prominent Southern California retail projects.
Encinitas Marketplace is currently home to Lawrance Furniture, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Chick-fil-A, The Kebab Shop and several smaller businesses. Verizon recently relocated to the center from another nearby location on El Camino Real.
Plans also show several additional retail spaces available for lease, including a 22,212-square-foot space adjacent to the future Whole Foods store.
According to a JLL marketing brochure, Encinitas Marketplace attracts approximately 1.4 million visits annually and sits within one of North County’s busiest retail corridors.
Whole Foods has not released details about the size of the new store. The company, founded in Austin, Texas, in 1980, operates more than 500 stores across North America and has become one of the nation’s largest retailers specializing in natural and organic foods.
