The developers bringing a Whole Foods to Riverdale Park are getting ready to start work on more commercial buildings next door.

Set to open later this year, the grocery store is taking shape. According to developers, another building will be started in the next month or two, while the necessary, if not glamorous, work continues on things like water lines and a railroad crossing.

Other retail buildings will be started within the next six months, as well as a traffic signal at the intersection of Route 1 and Van Buren Street, the main entrance to the development.

With a parking lot planned for just west of the Whole Foods building, customers should be able to easily get in to go food shopping even as construction continues on the rest of the development.

The opening of the Whole Foods will bring new attention to the area. As we saw with the Busboys and Poets in the Arts District, a landmark tenant can help build buzz even if the rest of the development is still months or years away from being finished.