Midlothian Depot: Chesterfield's First Whole Foods Is Coming to Alverser Drive

A national grocery anchor does something to a trade area that no single restaurant or shop can. It resets who drives past, how often, and what the businesses around it can charge for rent. Chesterfield County is about to get its first Whole Foods, and it is going at Midlothian Turnpike and Alverser Drive.

Twelve tenants have been named publicly:

As of early 2026 about 5,000 square feet remained unleased. Two names that circulated earlier are no longer part of the project: MyEyeDr., whose space went to Warby Parker, and Cooper's Hawk, whose lease was terminated in January 2026 in a settlement over a storm sewer roughly six and a half feet across, discovered twenty-five feet below its pad. SJC paid $700,000 over one year and the pad became a retail strip now holding Dave's Hot Chicken, J.Crew and Turning Point.

Nothing has opened yet. Whole Foods took out its interior buildout permit in January 2026, and the shells were substantially complete by February. The developer expected first openings in the fall of 2026 at the earliest, and the new property manager put the rollout as continuing into 2027.

The nearest firm date belongs to Cheba Hut at 1124 Steam Avenue, targeted for late September 2026. Whole Foods has not announced an opening date, and has declined to give one twice.

If you are planning around this — staffing, hours, a lease renewal, a marketing push — plan on a staggered opening across two seasons rather than a single ribbon-cutting.

The site is five parcels. Most of it belonged to the Haywood and Claudette Hyman Family Limited Partnership; a half acre belonged to Shirley Waller, Donna Hulshoff and Carol Waller. Until recently it was mostly woods, with three buildings fronting Midlothian Turnpike.

That is remarkable given how often the county said yes to something here:

Five approvals across three decades, and the land stayed wooded. The lesson is one every developer in the corridor knows: entitlement is not a project. Something has to make the numbers work, and here it was a grocery anchor.

Two cases, both unanimous, both with no public opposition on the record.

Case 22SN0009 rezoned 13.44 acres and permitted 350 apartments alongside about 75,000 square feet of commercial space. The Planning Commission recommended approval 4–0 on September 22, 2022. The Board of Supervisors approved it on October 26, 2022, on a motion by Ms. Carroll seconded by Mr. Ingle, 5–0, with no speakers at the public hearing.

Case 24SN1092 amended those conditions. It traded the 350 apartments for 60 residential condominiums in townhome form, three to four stories with attached garages, and added about 15,000 square feet of commercial space, taking the total to roughly 90,000 square feet in five buildings. The Planning Commission recommended approval 5–0 on June 18, 2024. The Board of Supervisors approved it on July 24, 2024, on a motion by Dr. Miller seconded by Mr. Ingle, 5–0. Again, no speakers.

A scheduled community meeting was cancelled in both cases because nobody signed up.

Midlothian Depot sits outside the Midlothian Community Special Area Plan boundary — by about 640 feet. The plan's eastern edge follows the Falling Creek drainage, which crosses Midlothian Turnpike just west of Alverser Drive. The village core is roughly 1.7 miles further west.

So the largest new retail investment on this stretch of Route 60 in a generation is governed by the countywide plan and an Arterial Business land use designation, not by the village's own plan or its design standards. That is not a criticism of the project; it is simply where the line falls, and it is worth knowing if you are comparing what is allowed on one side of the creek with what is allowed on the other.

For businesses within a few miles, a first-in-market grocery anchor changes three things at once. It raises the number of weekly trips through the intersection. It gives every neighboring landlord a comparable to point at. And it makes the corridor easier to pitch to the next national tenant deciding between Midlothian and somewhere else in the region.

The homes matter too, in a smaller way. Sixty households within walking distance of a grocery store is exactly the pattern the county has said it wants along Route 60, and it arrives here without a single apartment building.

Last updated September 16, 2026.