BRIGHTON, N.Y. (WROC) — A judge has ruled in favor of the developers of a Whole Foods store planned for Brighton. According to Daniele Family Companies, the store will now open this spring, aiming for April or May.

Currently, Starbucks, WellNow, Chapter, Medical Spa, Jersey Mike’s, and Fidelity Financial are open. The Danieles say Sephora, Zoom Tan, Tranquility Now, and Rachel’s Salads will be “open by the end of the summer.”

Brighton Grassroots, a “grassroots organization” that has admitted in court to receiving funding from Wegmans, says they will appeal the decision.

“This verdict was always headed to an appeals court, regardless of who won… We appreciate the Court’s time and effort in moving our case forward and we now look forward to quickly moving to the next phase of this litigation, where we believe we have very strong arguments,” they said in part in an email statement.

Wegmans has not returned comment regarding the court’s decision, or Brighton Grassroot’s statement that they will appeal.

The first proposal for the Whole Foods development was in 2018. Five years later, town supervisor of Brighton, Bill Moehle, calls this court decision a win.

“I was thrilled, first I was thrilled for my staff,” he said, applauding his staff for their “voluminous” submissions in the legal process.

“We should all have choices when it comes to shopping, and this will be a great addition to our community,” said Danny Daniele of Daniele Family Companies. “We believed enough in our arguments that the (suits) were frivolous and that we would prevail based on the facts, and we have, so the gamble we have taken behind us is finally paying [off.]”

For Brighton, this means an influx of tax revenue, which will help the town’s tax base. Moehle said the last projected revenue estimate said that $400,000 will be coming in from this project.

Additionally, Moehle addressed the traffic concerns on what is considered one of the busiest traffic areas in the Greater Rochester region. He says that their traffic analysis says that during the busiest times, only 40 seconds would be added to drive time.

“Some amount of that traffic is going to instead of driving all the way to Pittsford Wegmans through the Monroe-Clover intersection… they’re going to pull into Whole Foods, do their shopping there, then come back to Brighton,” he said.

Moehle went on to say that the Daniele Family Companies have built an extension to the Auburn Trail, and says that this will allow hundreds of households to be able to walk to Whole Foods for their shopping.

Additionally, he said that this trail now connects many areas of Brighton and Pittsford, adding to economic and recreational benefits.

Read the verdict