The giant empty husk of a former Macy’s department store at the Stonestown Galleria shopping center does not currently look like it did in the above photo. It is now coated with Whole Foods takeover banners, so much so that you cannot find an entrance, nor does the signage indicate any point at which this Whole Foods will actually open.

But that Whole Foods now has an opening date, albeit a soft one. This job posting on the Whole Foods website declares, “Stonestown New Store Opening in December 2021.”

The old Macy’s department store had been the anchor tenant for the Stonestown shopping center up until its closure in March 2018. Whole Foods announced they were taking the space just a month later, but its originally announced “late 2019” opening timeline was set back, and the pandemic surely set things back further.

This is unrelated to a new grand plan to add 2,900 units of housing and build a new mini-neighborhood around the mall, as those plans are still under a lengthy City Hall review. That housing would be built on what is currently the sprawling Stonestown parking lots, and the parking would move underground.

There’s already a Trader Joe’s in that same Stonestown plaza, so the new Whole Foods does not eliminate a grocery desert. But after nearly four years of total vacancy, getting a Whole Foods in that Macy’s will make the area a whole lot better.