With every shelf pin-neat and jammed with
food and its walls decorated with local history, the new McEwen Whole
Foods store opened this week — after nearly four years of waiting.
If all goes well, diners, shoppers and residents won’t have to wait
as long to see even more development here. Hailed since 2007 as
Franklin’s next mixed-use hub, McEwen developers at Southern Land Co.
say they have managed to ride out a national recession that left them
scuttling plans and waiting for the economy to improve before moving
forward. The plan to build a Whole Foods store, which is 40,000
square feet and cost nearly $3 million, was first announced nearly
four years ago, but construction began in earnest only last year.