Whole Foods Market is returning to this San Diego County city

Whole Foods Market is bringing its gouda and berry chantilly cake back to Encinitas.

Jones Lang LaSalle, which handles leasing for the Encinitas Marketplace shopping center at North El Camino Real and Via Molena, announced Whole Foods Market’s arrival in a brochure.

The store’s opening is part of a $10 million facelift that will transform the center’s look over the next 24 months, according to LJJ. Whole Foods Market, in the space emptied by Kohl’s last year, will anchor the 124,411-square-foot shopping center. It has five other retail openings: a 22,200-square-foot space and four smaller ones. The mall recently added a Verizon store.

This is one of three Whole Foods Markets planned for San Diego County. Stores are also heading to Carmel Mountain Ranch and downtown. While the Carmel Mountain store was recently announced, the downtown store has been in the works since 2024 and there are no updates on that location, a Whole Foods Market representative said in an email last month.

San Diego is getting a new Whole Foods Market

The Encinitas center, which opened in 1981, was sold in 2019 for $43 million, according to CoStar.

Encinitas had a Whole Foods Market for several years. It opened in 2011 but shut down in 2017. That store, in a mixed use development on South Coast Highway 101, faced lagging sales and was one of nine to close nationwide as the chain - months shy of its acquisition by Amazon - faced new competition from Walmart and other conventional grocers.

Whole Foods struggles: Encinitas location to close

With this Whole Foods, the mall returns to its roots: grocery.

“Its original anchor tenant was Alpha Beta supermarket followed by Lucky and Albertsons before Kohl's obtained the space,” community news outlet North Coast Current reported.

Staff writer Jennifer Van Grove contributed to this report.

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This story was originally published June 8, 2026 at 1:23 PM.