After months of speculation that a Whole Foods store would be coming to the Hill Country Galleria, the retailer announced Tuesday that it had signed a lease not only for the Bee Cave location but also six other locations across the country.

Whole Foods Market Inc. is set to open a 36,000-square-foot store in early 2012, said Adrian Overstreet, ownership group representative for Hill Country Galleria.

When the retail center’s new ownership group took the reins after the property’s $75 million sale in January, they mailed Whole Foods with leasing information the day after they closed, Overstreet said.

“They are the top of the class of Austin businesses and we are interested in getting the very best,” he said. “We are obviously thrilled.”

Whole Foods Market Inc. has eight other leases pending and reported sales increased 15 percent to $2.2 billion for the third quarter.

“We are pleased with our results which compare very favorably to most other food retailers and show we are continuing to gain market share,” said John Mackey, co-chief executive officer and co-founder of Whole Foods Market. “Despite tougher comparisons and the recent dip in reported consumer confidence, our two-year stacked identical store sales also sequentially increased to 4.6 percent.”

Whole Foods plans to open another Austin-area store at the Domain in 2012 and more in San Francisco, Boise, Id., Minneapolis and Washington, D.C.

The Austin-based natural and organic foods supermarket chain has about 57,000 employees and has been ranked for 13 consecutive years as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” in America by Fortune magazine.

Overstreet hoped to feed off the retailer’s success and presence as an anchor tenant as it signs more leases.

“We think that this will put us in a stronger position to fill out the rest of the development,” he said. “We’ve leased a great deal of space in the last few months. We think Whole Foods is only going to make that process go faster.”

Hill Country Galleria has recently added several tenants such as AMCheck, a payroll services company, and Radiant RFID, a company that develops RFID systems for evacuation, access and asset management.

The retail center also has signed a host of new leases including deals for restaurants Guy Harvey’s Tropical Island Grill, Wyland’s Ocean Blue and Buenos Aires Café.