How's this for a mixed message: Delaware shoppers are finally getting the Whole Foods they have been hoping for. But, in a way, they are also not getting the Whole Foods they have been hoping for.

That is because the upscale, health-minded supermarket is not coming to the place in Delaware that everybody assumed it would. But it is coming to the area nonetheless.

Instead of the hoped-for location at the southeast corner of Concord Pike and Naamans Road, the Texas-based chain has decided to open just up the road in Concordville, Pa., in the Glen Eagle Square shopping center at the site of the former Genuardi's market.

An opening date has not been announced, but work on the store is expected to get under way soon.

The chain, which calls itself "the world's leading natural and organic foods supermarket and America's first national certified organic grocer," has been the object of desire for many area foodies who have experienced its locations in Pennsylvania. For months, word on the street had it that one was coming to a commercial development planned for the farm field along Concord Pike at Naamans, but concerns over added traffic and over-commercialization at the already-congested intersection prompted community and political opposition to the project.

Whole Foods eventually moved its aim a couple of miles north, making potential visits somewhat less convenient but still doable for many local shoppers. Delawareans' concerns over sales tax at the Pennsylvania site are even mitigated somewhat -- most food items and "necessities" are not taxable there.

Plans for the property at Naamans Road, which is owned by the land-preservation group Woodlawn Trustees, are still in flux. County Councilman Robert Weiner, who was at the forefront of opposition to the center as it was planned, hopes to convince the developer to build a mixed-use project that would include residential as well as commercial and medical office space.

"That would bring high-paying jobs to an area that already has a plethora of low-paying retail jobs," he said.

Woodlawn, which owns and maintains about 2,000 acres in Brandywine Hundred and nearby Pennsylvania as wildlife preserve, needs to sell the property to keep up with its tax bill, Weiner said.

"We're not anti-development" when it comes to the property, Weiner said. "We're very pro-responsible development."