RKF – the retail brokerage that also arranged leases for Whole Foods in TriBeCa and East 57^th Street – has also brought tenants such as Barnes & Noble, Victoria’s Secret, Panera Bread, Brookstone and Chipotle to the 86^th Street retail corridors between Second and Third avenues.

Rents on the Whole Foods deal could not be confirmed in time for press, but research shows that retail rents, in general, are going up in the area. Last year, data from the Real Estate Board of New York shows a 36% increase in retail rents along the 86th Street corridor since fall 2010 and 20% since the spring. Rents for ground floor space have gone from $293 per square foot to $398 per square foot – a firm recovery after the market took a blow in 2008 post-downturn.

Alterman previously told GlobeSt.com that the Upper East Side retail market is reviving to old levels as a result. “The market had dropped all over from Third Avenue dramatically,” he says, noting that average rents are inching back to the mid-$200s to $300 mark. “Fairway’s replacement was great for the block and great for the foot traffic both to the west and east of it,” he says. “Now you are getting people coming from as far as East End Avenue coming over. They aren’t just going to the subway any longer. There is a reason for them to stop and shop.”

Whole Foods was represented by Chase Welles and Jacqueline Klinger of SCG Retail on the transaction. In addition to the Upper East Side location, SCG also arranged a 39,000-square-foot lease for Whole Foods at 100 W. 125th St. and Lenox Avenue, on the southwest corner beside the subway entrance in Harlem.

"These are important deals for their respective neighborhoods because they will fulfill demand in area of the city that both desire fresh natural and organic grocery store," Klinger says, in a statement. "Each location provides an outstanding footprint for Whole Food to bring its industry leading quality standards."