Whole Foods closed its Tarzana store at 18700 Ventura Blvd. in May 2022. Since then, the closest Whole Foods stores to Encino on the boulevard have been at 14311 Ventura in Sherman Oaks and 21347 Ventura in Woodland Hills. Encino sits in the middle of that stretch and has had no Whole Foods of its own.
That could change at 16325 Ventura Blvd., the former Amazon Fresh at Encino Marketplace. The center's own website now lists "Whole Foods Market – Coming Soon." What the listing doesn't give is a date, and that part matters if you're planning a weekly shop around it.
How an Amazon Fresh became a Whole Foods sign
The change at 16325 Ventura came out of a company-wide decision at Amazon, not anything specific to Encino. Here's the order of events this year:
- January 27, 2026. Amazon announced it would close its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores and turn some of those locations into Whole Foods Market stores. The same announcement said Whole Foods plans to open more than 100 new stores over the next few years.
- Early February 2026. Reporting on the California closures included Encino among the affected stores in Los Angeles County.
- March 13, 2026. The California Amazon Fresh stores stopped serving the public, Encino's included.
- May 2026. A Whole Foods application for the address showed up in ABC permitting records, and Whole Foods signage was photographed at the space.
- June 12, 2026. What Now Los Angeles reported the planned Whole Foods. It said it had asked Whole Foods for details and that the space looked to be in the early stages of development.
- Summer 2026. Encino Marketplace added "Whole Foods Market – Coming Soon" to its tenant list on its website.
Amazon has owned Whole Foods since 2017, so the conversion keeps the space in the same corporate family. For anyone who shopped the Amazon Fresh, that also explains why the sign went up only months after the old store went dark.
What "Coming Soon" confirms, and what it leaves open
Three sources point the same way: the permit filing, the signage, and the center's tenant page. That's enough to call the store planned. The most recent public word is still the center's "Coming Soon" listing, which gives no opening date. The June report, which came after What Now asked Whole Foods for details, said only that the space appeared to be in the early stages of development. Until Whole Foods itself names a date, the timing is open.
The size and type of store are also unannounced. Amazon's January announcement said the plan for more than 100 new stores includes expanding Whole Foods Market Daily Shop. No source says which version is going into 16325 Ventura. A full Whole Foods and a Daily Shop could do different jobs for a household, and that will likely stay unknown until the company says more.
In practice, the empty storefront is how Encino Marketplace will look for now. The rest of this post covers where Encino can shop until it opens.
The grocery map with 16325 dark
Even without Whole Foods, the Encino section of Ventura has a full-service grocery store. Gelson's Encino is at 16450 Ventura Blvd., in the same block range as the old Amazon Fresh. Farther west, Ralphs is at 17840 Ventura. Trader Joe's is off the boulevard at 17640 Burbank Blvd.
The list below covers the stores closest to Encino along both directions of Ventura, plus a few just off it.
| Store | Address | Direction from Encino |
|---|---|---|
| Gelson's Encino | 16450 Ventura Blvd., Encino | Same stretch as Encino Marketplace |
| Ralphs | 17840 Ventura Blvd., Encino | West, still in Encino |
| Trader Joe's | 17640 Burbank Blvd., Encino | North of Ventura |
| Encino Farmers Market | 17400 Victory Blvd. | North, Sundays only |
| Pavilions | 14845 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks | East |
| Whole Foods Market Sherman Oaks West | 4520 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Sherman Oaks | East, off Ventura |
| Whole Foods Market Sherman | 14311 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks | East |
| Ralphs | 14049 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks | East |
| Trader Joe's | 14119 Riverside Dr., Sherman Oaks | East |
| Whole Foods Market Sherman Oaks East | 12905 Riverside Dr., Sherman Oaks | East |
| Vons | 18439 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana | West |
| Gelson's Tarzana | 5500 Reseda Blvd., Tarzana | West |
| Whole Foods Market Woodland Hills | 21347 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills | West |
| Bristol Farms | 23379 Mulholland Dr., Woodland Hills | West |
The table shows the gap. East of Encino, Sherman Oaks has three Whole Foods stores, on Ventura, Riverside, and Sepulveda. West of Encino, the next one is in Woodland Hills at 21347 Ventura. A Whole Foods at 16325 Ventura would be the first on that western stretch since the Tarzana store at 18700 Ventura closed in 2022. That makes the planned store more significant for households west of the 405 than for those closer to Sherman Oaks, who already have three Whole Foods nearby.
The Encino Farmers Market is the other option worth a spot on the weekly list. It runs every Sunday, year-round, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 17400 Victory Blvd. It's a good fit for produce runs that don't line up with any one store's hours.
The rest of Encino Marketplace stayed open
The grocery space is the largest vacancy at Encino Marketplace, but the center didn't empty out around it. The 95,000-square-foot center still has See's Candies, Solidcore, Starbucks, CVS Pharmacy, Bacio di Latte, Sweet Lady Jane, and Sweetgreen. For a quick pharmacy run, coffee, or a bakery box, the center still works the way it did before March. Weekly groceries are the one errand that has to go somewhere else for now.
A new bakery also opened a short drive west this summer. Mikan bakery & more, the first Japanese bakery concept from JINYA Holdings, the company behind JINYA Ramen Bar, opened in early July at 17237 Ventura Blvd., Unit C. Reports published before the opening listed different closing times, so check its current hours before planning an afternoon stop around it.
Bakeries and quick-service spots made up most of the new openings this year in neighboring Tarzana too. We covered that pattern in Tarzana Got Seven New Spots on Ventura Boulevard. Almost None of Them Serve Dinner. Mikan fits the same mold. A grocery anchor is a different kind of tenant. People go to it every week, and it draws traffic to the shops around it, which is why the 16325 space matters more to Encino Marketplace than any single bakery or café.
What to watch for next
The signs that the Whole Foods is actually moving forward will be concrete ones. Look for construction work inside the old Amazon Fresh space, a Whole Foods store page for Encino, or an opening date from the company. Until one of those appears, Gelson's at 16450 Ventura, Ralphs at 17840 Ventura, and Trader Joe's on Burbank are the grocery stores within Encino, and the closest Whole Foods is still in Sherman Oaks at 14311 Ventura. More neighborhood coverage is on our Encino page, and the Whole Foods options to the east are on our Sherman Oaks page.
A grocery anchor coming back to a Ventura Boulevard center is the kind of local change that comes up in conversations about owning in Encino. If you'd like to talk through how retail changes along the boulevard fit into your plans to buy, sell, or hold here, Steven Craven is a Sherman Oaks native who has followed this corridor for more than 20 years. Book a Consultation and we'll go through it together.
