After November 11, Your Whole Foods Run at 3rd & Fairfax Starts on Ogden Drive

For more than two decades, groceries at 3rd and Fairfax meant the west end of the Town & Country center, in a store Whole Foods has run since 2002. The east end was the slow side of the lot. It held a Kmart that closed in November 2018, plus a row of patio shops.

On Wednesday, November 11, those roles flip. The new Whole Foods flagship opens at 9 a.m. at 355 S. Ogden Drive, inside a center called Bloom on Third, and the old store next door goes with it. It looks like a short move, a few hundred feet across the same corner. It also moves the corner's center of gravity east, onto a street many neighbors have only ever used as a cut-through. That leaves the west end, where the store has been, as the part of the block with no announced tenant.

The Address Changes, and So Does the Way In

The Whole Foods announcement gives the new store its own parking structure with more than 600 spaces. If you've spent years circling the shared surface lot on 3rd Street, that's the biggest practical change. The Bloom on Third visitor page says parking details will come closer to opening, so fees and validation rules haven't been published yet.

The way you get there on foot is changing too. In October 2025, the Beverly Press reported that new crosswalks would go in across Third Street at Ogden Drive and across Fairfax Avenue near the back of the CVS before the project opened. The city's approval also calls for a public pedestrian paseo running from Ogden through the site to the older retail on the western side. That paseo is what physically ties the new east end to the old west end, which matters once the west end gets a new tenant.

Hours stay familiar. The new store will run 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. If you order ahead, Grocery Pickup will start "shortly after opening" rather than on day one.

Where the Extra 22,000 Square Feet Went

The old store is about 41,000 square feet, according to the Beverly Press. The new one is 63,082. The LA Globe put it as roughly half again as much store on the same corner.

A lot of that new space goes to places where you can stay a while, which the old store never really had:

• A taproom pouring wine by the glass and beer on tap, with California producers including Massican, Field Recordings, Bernardus Winery, Los Angeles Ale Works, Russian River Brewing Company and Golden State Cider.
• A charcuterie venue next to the bar, run by cheesemongers and a Certified Cheese Professional. It offers ready-made or build-your-own boards with Gusto charcuterie, Chuao Chocolatier chocolates, and fresh mozzarella and burrata from Angelo & Franco.
• A coffee and juice bar with made-to-order drinks, including a Brown Butter Cookie Latte and a Berry Chantilly Latte.
• Prepared foods with pizza by the slice, a Market Sandwich counter, a Market Plate counter, and sushi rolled daily by Kikka Sushi.

The shelves lean local. The store says it will carry more than 1,900 items from over 400 California suppliers, from Kenter Canyon Farms herbs and salads to Tartine Bakery bread and Santa Barbara Smokehouse smoked salmon. The beverage department lists more than 780 wines and more than 600 craft beers.

All of this sits across Third Street from the Original Farmers Market and The Grove, which gives the corner a wine bar and a cheese counter on the grocery side of the street.

Opening Week, in Order

1. Wednesday, November 11, 9 a.m. Doors open. The first 300 people in line get a limited-edition 3rd & Fairfax tote and a Secret Saver coupon worth up to $100 off, and the first 100 also get a mini tote. Canyon Coffee will be pouring, with samples from Fishwife Tinned Seafood Co. and Urban Remedy. U.S. veterans can pick up a free brown butter chocolate chip cookie at the customer service counter.
2. Saturday, November 14, 2 to 7 p.m. The first taproom event, with a DJ, wine tasting and demos.
3. Saturday, November 21, 2 to 7 p.m. The second taproom afternoon, same format.

The opening also includes a food and monetary donation to Food Cycle LA. The nonprofit already picks up surplus food from local Whole Foods stores.

Why the East End Took Eight Years

The new store is the ground floor of a much bigger building. Holland Partner Group first proposed a 26-story tower on the old Kmart site in 2018. After pushback from residents, businesses and then-Councilmember David Ryu, the plan came down to eight stories, and the Mid City West Community Council supported the revised version, the Beverly Press reported in 2024. The City Council approved it in 2022, and construction started late that year.

What stands there now is The Daphne, 311 apartments above the retail. Regency Centers and the Arba Group own the property, and Holland Partner Group holds a 99-year lease on the residential portion. George Elum, a managing director at Holland Partner Group, summed up the timeline to the Beverly Press:

"We started the entitlements in 2018. It's ultimately been an eight-year process."

As recently as October 2025, the building was expected to open in mid-spring 2026. November is the date that held. With 311 households living upstairs, the Ogden Drive side becomes a busy residential address as well as a shopping one.

The Rest of Bloom on Third Fills In on Its Own Schedule

Whole Foods is the anchor, but the Bloom on Third site lists more tenants. CVS and Citibank are already open, and the site also lists Olive Young, Free People and Anthropologie. None of those three has announced an opening date. Free People's store directory also just says "Coming Soon!"

Olive Young is the name to watch. The Korean beauty retailer's leasing records show a 5,900-square-foot space at Bloom. Its first U.S. store opened in Pasadena on May 29, 2026, and a second followed at Westfield Century City on June 13, Aju Press reported. In June, Korea JoongAng Daily described Pasadena as the first of five Los Angeles stores planned by the end of 2026. A more recent October interview gave a slower target of at least five more California locations by the first half of 2027, without naming the sites. If 3rd & Fairfax is one of them, it could open next year rather than this year.

There's also room for food. The city-reviewed project plan set aside 7,500 square feet for restaurant use. No restaurant tenant appears on the center's current list.

The West End Becomes the Question

The store Whole Foods leaves behind is the piece nobody has named yet. In October 2025, Regency Centers said it was leasing the space to a "national retailer," but a spokesman wasn't ready to say which one, according to the Beverly Press. A year later, as the new store's opening approached, The LA Globe called that space "the next door to watch," and it still had no name attached.

The building isn't slated to come down. The city's 2021 project description kept the western Whole Foods premises in place and cleared only the eastern side for redevelopment. Neither the company nor the landlord has given the old store a last day. As of this week, the Fairfax store page still lists 6350 W. 3rd St. with 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. hours.

The east end now has a flagship grocery store, a 600-space garage, 311 apartments and a K-beauty store on the way. The west end has a roughly 41,000-square-foot space that its landlord says is going to a national retailer it hasn't named. Its new tenant will decide how much of the old foot traffic keeps crossing the paseo.

When the anchor tenant changes on a corner this central to the Fairfax District, Park La Brea and Beverly Grove, it changes how the surrounding blocks get described, shown and priced. If you own nearby and want to know how a new flagship, a new apartment building and an empty anchor space next door figure into your home's story, Karean Wrightson can walk you through it. Request a Complimentary Market Consultation.