The former Capitol Hill Whole Foods and possibly the future Capitol Hill Whole Foods is under construction

A mysterious fence has appeared around the old Whole Foods building in Capitol Hill sending the area’s organic produce and fancy deli fans into a frenzy. Well, maybe it’s not so mysterious because Whole Foods is almost definitely returning though its corporate office won’t confirm.

The parking lot at 11th Avenue and Ogden Street is full of demolition trucks, the doors have been flung open and there is a guy with a staple gun doing something to a pile of wood out front. So is Whole Foods coming back after ditching Cap Hill in 2017? Probably. They are, at the very least, filing permits with the city to make it appear they are coming back and paying construction workers to hang out in the parking lot.

Whole Foods Market filed several permits for the property including a zoning permit, a sewer use permit and a construction permit for shell alterations and electrical work. There are two separate logs of permits, one called Phase 1 and one called Phase 2. Both phases are still “in progress,” which means that they are under review by the city and have not yet been issued. We can’t officially say Whole Foods is coming back until those permits are marked as “issued.”

Whole Foods representatives could not be reached Wednesday morning and they declined to comment two weeks ago on the status of the project. The construction company listed on the permits, Waner Construction, also declined to comment citing a non-disclosure agreement.