Sprouts Farmers Market Won't Open Until Early 2012

The forthcoming Sprouts Farmers Market is still going through the government approval process and is scheduled to open in early 2012, not this summer as originally planned, according to a company spokeswoman and city officials.

The Planning Commission first publicly addressed the project in November, and the City Council approved plans for the new store in December. At the time sought to establish a La Cañada Flintridge location in a vacant building that used to be a sporting goods store at 920 Foothill Blvd. across the street from the Town Center retail complex.

In February, however, Henry's merged with Arizona-based Sprouts, which hired Nadel Architects—a firm headquartered in West Los Angeles though its Phoenix office is handling the project—to do a redesign tailored to the Sprouts brand. Henry's management initially contracted Cary Architects of Sun Valley to create plans for the new market.

According to architect Jim Cary and Director of Community Development Robert Stanley, city officials stipulated that the exterior should remain true to Cary's original plan when Nadel took over the project.

In December a spokeswoman for Henry's estimated the new market would open this summer. Now it's looking more like early 2012.

Ben Bartlett, manager of the Community Development Department's Building & Safety Division, and Senior Planner Fred Buss said they couldn't provide specific details on the project's oversight phase in which architects submit their plans for review by Building & Safety staff members.

Bartlett did say there was a June 1 revision to Nadel's design, and both officials described the "plan check" process:

After Planning Commission and city council approval, a project's architect responds to issues raised by a Building & Safety plan checker. This process usually takes several months, Bartlett said, and aims at keeping a building design in line with state law requirements.

When a plan checker gives the OK, the Planning Commission reviews an architect's plans again and can either require additional changes or refer the project to Building & Safety, which issues the final permit allowing construction work to begin.

A Nadel employee in Phoenix declined to comment on the project and referred queries to the Sprouts corporate office.

"We don't have any more details to release at this time," said Sprouts spokeswoman Kim Rockley. "I should have some more info to share in the next few weeks."