What's Actually Rising on Avon's Valley Floor This Fall

Ask around Avon about the construction east of Chapel Square and most people bring up the Whole Foods. The grocery store is also the one project on the old STOLPort land that has no confirmed groundbreaking. Everything else is further along. Permanent road work on East Beaver Creek Boulevard and Chapel Place is nearly done. A childcare center finished construction in September. A 242-unit apartment building is advertising move-ins for late 2026. So far the Village at Avon is being built from the ground up, and the store sits at the end of that order.

The order follows a pattern. The landowner and its development partners have said, in public and more than once, that the pace will follow the market. To read the dirt on the valley floor accurately, it helps to know which projects are finished, which are close, and which are still a rendering.

The road came first, by design

If East Beaver Creek Boulevard felt like an obstacle course in September and October, the work had a purpose. The Town of Avon scheduled a detour from Sept. 17 through Oct. 16, 2026, for "remaining utility work and roadway improvements associated with Village at Avon construction." Crews were tying new curb, gutter, sidewalk and paving into the existing roads. The town said the detour would stay only as long as the tie-ins took, and that normal traffic would return once the new road segments were ready. If the pattern still looks unfamiliar, the Avon Engineering Department takes questions at (970) 748-4080.

That detour was the visible end of a much larger project. When Avon Town Council approved amendments to the Village (at Avon) planned unit development in April 2026, Vail Daily reported that grading was finished across the valley floor, including the future Whole Foods site. The same story put the estimated cost at $25 million for permanent improvements to East Beaver Creek Boulevard and Chapel Place, plus an extension of Crescent Hill Road east toward Bosk. According to that coverage, public infrastructure in the Village has cost about $84 million to date.

Traer Creek's Michael Lindholm told Vail Daily that working through the master plan with the Los Angeles firm Jerde Partnership took "more than four and a half years," and that Traer was "willing to finance the infrastructure investment that will make this first phase become a reality." Roads and stormwater systems have to exist before buildings can connect to them, and that is the work that wrapped up this fall.

The first building to finish is the one nobody headlined

The first new building on that road network is a childcare center. The Vail Valley Foundation cut the ribbon on Lettuce Patch Early Learning Center on Sept. 10, 2026. Staff onboarding started that day, and children were expected in mid-October, with a target start date of Oct. 12.

"It's hard to believe this was an empty lot just over a year ago, and we are now preparing to welcome some of Eagle County's youngest learners."

That was VVF President and CEO Mike Imhof, quoted in the foundation's announcement. The building is all-electric and covers 13,595 square feet, with 12 classrooms, four outdoor playgrounds and a full-service kitchen. Access Early Education Foundation operates the center Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., year-round. It can eventually serve up to 165 children from six weeks to five years old, and about 55 percent of its licensed capacity goes to infant and toddler care.

The project shows how the Village gets built. Traer Creek conveyed the parcel for community use back in the 1990s. The Town of Avon leased it to VVF for 50 years at $10 and added $800,000 in incentives, and Eagle County contributed $1 million. The Vail Resorts Epic Promise Foundation provided grant support. The building came from local firms: Zehren & Associates designed it, RA Nelson built it, and Active Energies Solar donated and installed more than 100 rooftop panels. The name refers to Avon's history as a lettuce-farming community. The finished building also proves the new road network can carry a working facility.

Bosk is the next set of lights to come on

Up the Crescent Hill Road extension, Bosk is the second project close to the finish. Prime West Development broke ground on the 242-unit apartment building in late 2024, as Vail Daily covered at the time. In April 2026, Traer Creek said it was slated to open at the end of 2026. The building's leasing site now reads "Move-ins Start Late 2026!" and offers a VIP list for construction and leasing updates. The site does not yet show an open application.

Bosk sits west of Traer Creek Plaza, where the Walmart and Home Depot are. When it opens, the east end will add 242 new households that need groceries within a few minutes of home, before the store meant to serve them has started going up.

The grocery store is the piece still waiting on a shovel

Here is the Whole Foods timeline, using only dated public statements:

1. July 2025. Kensington Development Partners announced a spring 2026 construction start for Phase I, roughly six acres that include a proposed Whole Foods Market, for-sale condominiums and retail space in front of the store, as reported by Real Vail.
2. September 2025. Vail Daily reported that Phase I would include a 26,000-square-foot Whole Foods, a 120-unit condominium building, two retail pads and parking. Construction was expected to begin in June or July 2026, and the developer estimated a fall 2027 opening, explicitly "subject to change."
3. April 2026. Grading of the Whole Foods parcel was complete, according to Vail Daily's council coverage.
4. 2026. Kensington's own project page says Phase I received Final Design Review Board approval and was expected to break ground in summer 2026.

The fall 2027 figure is more than a year old, and none of the 2026 statements from the developer, the landowner or the town has replaced it. On the publication date of this post, the most accurate status is a graded site, design approval and a groundbreaking target that has passed with no public confirmation that vertical construction began.

Traer Creek's language explains the gap. Marcus Lindholm told Vail Daily in April that the company is "striving to move forward with right-size planning on a timeline that ensures smart investment that benefits the community," and that the goal is to see investments made "responsibly, and in the right amount of time, all to respond to market demand." In 2025, the Lindholms described themselves as carefully watching "financial and equity markets and national and local economies" when deciding on construction timing. Neither statement includes a date for the store.

Why "right-size" matters on a property this large

The Village (at Avon) covers about 1,700 acres. Its PUD was approved for up to 2,400 homes and lodging units and up to 825,000 square feet of commercial space. As of July 2025, about 354,983 square feet of commercial space, 243 hotel rooms and 484 apartments had been built, according to Kensington's release published by Real Vail. After roughly two decades of building, less than half the approved commercial space exists. The Marriott SpringHill Suites and TownePlace Suites, the Maverik and the Piedmont apartments all came in stages, each when the numbers worked.

Planning Area A, the 40-acre parcel just east of Chapel Square where the Whole Foods is planned, is entitled for retail, hospitality, housing, parks and community infrastructure. In 2025, Vail Daily reported that Kensington had described a Phase II east of the store as a pedestrian-oriented promenade with retail plus apartments, condos and hotels above an underground garage. That same year, Kensington partner Jared Eck said the company wanted "a mix of local business owners and national brands." No Phase II tenant has been named.

The April 2026 amendments, approved 6–1, also set aside two sites near Lettuce Patch for 64 community-housing units, 24 on one site and 40 on the other. Habitat for Humanity Vail Valley is in preliminary discussions, and no construction schedule has been announced.

If you want to know how the build-out east of Chapel Square could affect your own corner of Avon, whether that's a commute down East Beaver Creek Boulevard or a home you're thinking about selling in a few years, Bloom Group Vail follows these projects closely. Request a market consultation and we'll go through what's built, what's scheduled and what's still on paper.