Erewhon Markets chief Tony Antoci has been quietly reshaping the high-end grocer into a much bigger local player, rolling out new stores, taking over a museum cafe and now locking down a hefty industrial site to feed the operation. Add in the recent sale of the Antocis' Bel Air home and the picture looks clear: Erewhon is steadily shifting from boutique grocer to a more vertically integrated regional force.
Big Purchase Gives Erewhon Distribution Power
Antoci and his wife, Josephine, shelled out roughly $51 million for a 110,789-square-foot industrial facility at 1800 East Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Central Los Angeles, a site industry watchers say is set to serve as a distribution and food-grade operations hub. The purchase price, about $460 per square foot, ranks as one of the pricier owner-user industrial deals in Central L.A., according to Traded.
Museum Cafe And New Stores Expand The Brand
On the front end, Erewhon has already opened a Manhattan Beach location and is lining up new stores in Glendale, West Hollywood and Thousand Oaks, while also rebuilding its Pacific Palisades site to anchor Palisades Village, per the Los Angeles Business Journal. The grocer is also running the cafe at LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries, a high-visibility partnership reported by the Los Angeles Times that will put Erewhon directly in front of museumgoers this spring.
Why Erewhon Is Buying Industrial Space
Controlling a sizeable, ready-to-use industrial building gives a food retailer the chance to own its cold-chain logistics and tighten delivery times to cafes and prepared-food operations, an advantage that becomes more important as the company leans into cafes and perishable-heavy stores. Coverage of the transaction notes that the deal reflects solid owner-user demand and a willingness to pay premiums for food-grade space in Central L.A., according to The Registry.
Antocis' Real-Estate Moves
On the personal side, Tony and Josephine Antoci sold their Bel Air mansion for roughly $28.5 million last August, a high-end deal that has been cited alongside Erewhon’s business expansion. The property itself carried a tangled ownership backstory that previously drew federal attention, as reported by The Real Deal.
All of this helps explain why Antoci keeps showing up on the LA500 list: the Los Angeles Business Journal notes he is a three‑time entrant on the ranking. For shoppers and landlords across the city, Erewhon’s latest moves translate into more storefronts, heavier commercial foot traffic and a clearer signal that the grocer intends to own more of the logistics behind its glossy brand as it scales up.
