Whole Foods' announcement that the Hillsdale Wild Oats store will close this fall has set off a flurry of discussion in the community about the future of the store site.

Mike Roach, president of the Hillsdale Business and Professional Association and co-owner of Paloma Clothing, said the closure "will leave a big hole in the community. Losing the largest anchor tenant in the shopping center is serious event."

Roach invited the community to help find a solution.

He said one possibility is a community store that would sell shares to community members. He noted that such community-owned stores have been successful elsewhere in the country.

Eamon Molloy, the manager of the Hillsdale Farmers Market, has been researching the economics of starting a store since Whole Foods announced its bid for Wild Oats earlier this year. Whole Foods seemed likely to close the Hillsdale store because the big chain's stores are much larger.

Opening a store in Hillsdale would take roughly $1 million, Molloy said. Simply stocking the store would cost between $260,000 and $360,000.

Expanding the floor space from the current 8,000 square feet would need to be investigated as well, he said. For instance,New Seasons' smallest store, Sellwood, at 14,000 square feet. is hard pressed for space. "They don't have enough room to keep the store stocked," Molloy said.

If a Hillsdale store requires expansion, additional time would be needed for designing, city review of plans, and construction. "And more time means more money," he cautioned.

Roach thought some savings might be possible because Whole Foods has three years to run on its lease. The Wild Oats space is owned by the Wardin family, which owns the Hillsdale Shopping Center and other commercial real estate in the Hillsdale Town Center. Monthly payments from the Whole Foods might mean the space would initially be available at a lower rate, Roach said.

John Braidwood, who helps his wife, Ardys, a Wardin, manage the shopping center, said the couple has yet to talk with Wild Oats about the closure details. He said the first choice for a new tenant would be a grocery.

"Any reasonable ideas are welcome," he said. "We want the new use to work for the neighborhood as well as for us."

The Farmers Market's Molloy believes Whole Foods' decision represents an opportunity to buck the trend to bigger stores. "Everyone in the grocery business is getting bigger. Some people don't like bigger. The opportunity in Hillsdale is for coming up with an idea that works but is still small."

Another key ingredient is local ownership, Molloy said. The store manager needs authority to make decisions, something large corporations generally don't allow.

Robert Ostrochovsky, Hillsdale Wild Oats store manager, referred all questions to a Whole Foods regional spokesperson, who was out of the office and did not return calls.

The Hillsdale store was for years the family-owned Lynch's Market. It became part of a small seven-store chain in 1990 when Nature's moved into the space. In 1996 Nature's was bought by General Nutrition Centers of Pittsburgh, which in turn sold the Nature's stores to Wild Oats of Boulder, Colorado, in 1999.

Last month, after a legal battle with the Federal Trade Commission, The Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods received the green light from the courts to proceed with buying Wild Oats, previously a competitor in the natural foods specialty sector.