A city diagram showing the site of a planned retail development in Akron's Wallhaven area, designated by the dotted line. Shaded areas to the right are properties to be acquired, while shading on the left side of the map represents property already secured by the developer.

AKRON, Ohio -- When a planned organic market in West Akron's Wallhaven neighborhood replaces West Point Market, the store won't be sitting in the same location.

The new market, which Councilwoman Marilyn Keith told the Beacon Journal will be a Whole Foods, will expect to generate roughly four times the traffic of West Point Market, the area's first gourmet food market when it opened in 1960.

West Point is closing its flagship market on West Market Street sometime later this year after 80 years in business, first as a family grocery store, then as a gourmet and organic marketplace. The market plans to build a series of smaller gourmet groceries around Northeast Ohio.

The new grocery, being developed as part of a multi-store area by S.J. Collins Enterprises, will be built further away from the intersection than the existing West Point Market, which will be demolished to allow access to a 30-inch sewer line buried below.

The Circle K store will remain at the corner of North Hawkins and West Market Street, and will be surrounded by landscaped parking spaces. Two retail spaces will face towards Hawkins, adjacent to the new grocery store.

Keith, who represents the neighborhood on Akron City Council, said that the developers met with residents in recent week and "answered every single concern," even detailing the permeable pavement and environmentally friendly landscaping that will be used in the parking lot.

"I was quite impressed," Keith said Monday afternoon. "They literally answered every single concern that neighbors had for the store."

Keith said that the developer agreed to keep a fence abutting the northern edge of the property, and even offered to enlarge the fence if the neighbors wanted. All deliveries at the new grocery will take place in the morning or evening, through what Keith called a cave, enclosed behind the store.

The new organic market has also agreed to consider West Point employees first for jobs. West Point employs about 100 people; the new market will offer 170 people jobs at an average wage of $40,000 per year.

The smaller surrounding stores will be class A retail space, Keith said, and will not include any drive-thru convenience stores.

"Hopefully it will be ice cream. We need ice cream," Keith said.

More details about the planned market will be presented at a public hearing before the city's planning committee next week, to be held in Akron City Council Chambers, 166 South High Street, beginning at 1:30 p.m.

Whole Foods has locations in University Heights and Woodmere, with a store under construction in Rocky River.

A previous version of this article, interpreted from a map presented to city council, incorrectly stated that the Circle K store at West Market Street and North Hawkins would be demolished. Circle K will not vacate that location, instead the Whole Foods parking lot will be built around the convenience store.