"Now, if I have guests coming over I can walk two blocks down the road." That was Luke St. Laurent, a Little Italy resident, speaking to the San Diego Sun on September 23, the day Whole Foods Market opened at 201 W. A St. He also said he could now walk to the grocery store instead of looking for parking in Hillcrest.
Two blocks is the whole story. Downtown's grocery stores weren't too few so much as all on one side. Before last week, every large chain grocer downtown sat on or south of G Street, or several blocks east of it. The new store at the base of The Torrey gives the west side its first full-size grocery store. That changes which errands fit on which side of downtown.
The map before September 23
In its August preview of the opening, the San Diego Union-Tribune counted four large grocers in the downtown community planning area. Ralphs sits just south of Horton Plaza on G Street. Albertsons, Smart & Final and Grocery Outlet are several blocks east. The paper described the west side, where The Torrey and several other residential buildings are opening, as an area of small markets, convenience stores and specialty shops in Little Italy.
| Store | Address | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Whole Foods Market | 201 W. A St., at Front St. | West side, where Cortez Hill meets Core-Columbia, near Little Italy |
| Ralphs | 101 G St. | Just south of Horton Plaza |
| Albertsons | 655 14th St., at Market | East Village |
| Smart & Final | 720 15th St. | East Village |
| Grocery Outlet | 1002 Market St. | East Village |
Trader Joe's has no downtown store in its current San Diego directory. Its nearest listings include Hillcrest and Mission Valley. On the west side, then, the nearest full-size store had always been either the Ralphs on G Street or a store in another neighborhood. A year ago, in Times of San Diego's coverage of the coming store, a Core-Columbia resident said he had to go looking for grocery stores or drive to them.
Why it took this long
Front and A wasn't Whole Foods' first try at downtown. The chain had first been attached to the 7th & Market project. The Union-Tribune reported in 2018 that Whole Foods used its right to terminate that deal after litigation dragged out the timeline. In September 2025, Times of San Diego described the Torrey store as arriving about a decade after the chain first signed for a downtown project.
The current site took shape after Holland Partner Group and a partner bought the former county courthouse property in June 2019. In February 2024 the project was announced as a 34-story, 450-residence tower with Whole Foods on the ground floor, and completion was projected for the second quarter of 2026. The store opened on September 23, one quarter after that target. When the project was announced, Downtown San Diego Partnership CEO Betsy Brennan said the Partnership had heard residents asking for more grocery options.
The opening also ends a six-year gap with no organic grocery chain downtown. Jimbo's Naturally closed its Horton Plaza store in 2020, during the mall's redevelopment and a legal dispute with its developer. The Union-Tribune notes that Whole Foods now brings an organic chain back to downtown.
What happened to the Horton Plaza Sprouts
In August 2023, Sprouts Farmers Market was announced as one of the first retail tenants at Campus at Horton, which was then expected to open in 2024. No opening has been reported. The lender's ownership entity, Horton Plaza Propco LLC, took over the property through foreclosure. In documents filed with the city, Propco said the campus is 90 to 95 percent complete, but all of its major permits have expired, which pushes completion to the middle of 2027. The reporting doesn't say whether the Sprouts lease is still in force. For the foreseeable future, the store at Front and A is the organic grocery chain downtown has.
What the new store covers on a weekday
According to the company, the store is 45,400 square feet and open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. It's the fourth Whole Foods in the San Diego area, after Hillcrest, La Jolla and Del Mar. Times of San Diego reports 176 free parking spaces for shoppers, which matters downtown. The departments that matter most for a west-side week:
- Coffee and juice bar with made-to-order coffee, tea, juices and smoothies.
- Prepared foods: hot and salad bars, pizza by the slice, a Market Sandwich counter, a Market Plate counter, and sushi made fresh daily by Kikka Sushi.
- Cheese counter run by cheesemongers, with charcuterie from Gusto, chocolates from Chuao Chocolatier and crackers from Rustic Bakery.
- Full-service meat and seafood counters, including Mary's Chickens and smoked salmon from The Santa Barbara Smokehouse.
- Beverages: more than 500 wines and more than 330 craft beers, with products from 40 local breweries and 110 local wineries.
- Bakery with hearth breads from Bread and Cie.
Grocery Pickup is due to start shortly after opening. Prime members get weekly discounts and an extra 10 percent off hundreds of sale items. For the first few weeks, plan for crowds. Times of San Diego says to expect long checkout lines, and prepared foods selling out fast at lunch, until the opening rush dies down. If your midday visit is mainly for the hot bar, an early-evening stop may go faster.
Where the other stores still fit
A west-side store doesn't replace the rest of the map. It changes how errands can be split. Hours are part of that. As of late September 2026, the Ralphs store page lists 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily, and Albertsons lists 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. With Whole Foods open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Ralphs at 101 G St. is still the only downtown option on this list before 6 a.m. or after 10 p.m. The three East Village stores remain the nearest options for anyone living near 14th and Market. Smart & Final and Grocery Outlet are each a short walk from Albertsons.
The Little Italy specialty shops that kept the west side stocked are just as close as before. Mona Lisa Italian Foods at 2061 India St. runs an Italian deli with imported and domestic meats and cheeses, fresh pasta and pantry goods. The Little Italy Mercato still fills West Date Street year-round. The Saturday market runs 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. across six blocks, and the Wednesday market runs 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on three blocks from Kettner to State. The City's events calendar lists both markets this week, including Wednesday, September 30, and Saturday, October 3.
That puts the Mercato, Mona Lisa and Whole Foods within a few blocks of one another along the Front, India and Date corridor. On a Saturday you can do farm-stand produce and an Italian deli counter in the morning and a full grocery run before noon, all on foot, in one part of downtown. Before September 23, the last stop on that trip meant walking south to G Street or driving out of the neighborhood.
The blocks around the store
The store's arrival comes in a year when the nearby blocks have also added places to eat. Egg Tuck, a chain that started as a pop-up in Los Angeles' Koreatown, recently opened its first San Diego location at 1331 Columbia St. in the Core-Columbia district. It's known for a brioche sandwich of soft-scrambled eggs and chives. In late June, Tiger Hospitality opened Global Fork Food Hall on West Date Street between Columbia and India, in the space of the former Little Italy Food Hall. Its vendors include Cosmos Burger, Lobster Lab and La Vida.
Two dates this fall are worth adding to a west-side weekend. The Female Maker Market, a free market featuring women-owned businesses, returns to Piazza della Famiglia on Sunday, October 11, and Sunday, November 22. Across downtown, the fifth Taste of East Village runs October 14 and 15 from 4 to 8 p.m. on a separate route each day. Tickets are $48.75 per day, with check-in at 808 J St.
At Fine Properties San Diego, we follow what each new store, market and food hall means for life in the towers around it, because buyers are asking about walkable errands as often as they ask about views. If you own a home in Little Italy, Core-Columbia or Cortez Hill and want to know how a grocery store two blocks away figures into your home's value, we'll prepare the numbers for your building. Request a Complimentary Market Valuation.
