Friday, February 10, 2017

Bonus Bits & Bites

New York-based The Shoe Box  plans to take over the existing Vince Camuto store on the first floor of Lenox Square in Buckhead.  Store employees are referring to the change as a "conversion" due to the fact that there is some licensing/ownership/franchise relationship between the Camuto Group and The Shoe Box. Vince Camuto opened at Lenox Square in 2014.  As a brand, The Shoe Box dates to 1954, but it had not had a retail presence in a number of years before opening six boutiques last fall, including at least one in a "converted" Vince Camuto at Town Center at Boca Raton in Florida.  Sources say the Lenox Square conversion is due to be completed sometime next month with in-stock Vince Camuto merchandise being liquidated at 70% off retail.  When The Shoe Box reopens, the store will carry a variety of luxury brands including Stuart Weitzman, Jil Sander, Rebecca Minkoff, Proenza Schouler, Sam Edelman, See by Chloe and others.  The boutique will also carry Kendall+Kylie, the label from Kendall and Kylie Jenner.  Interestingly, the Shoe Box will reportedly no longer carry Vince Camuto merchandise. Given the brands that will be carried, and the boutique feel of the store, I, as well as many retail observers with whom I spoke, believe The Shoe Box will in some way be the Lenox version of Phipps Plaza's Jeffrey.

G-Star RAW plans to relocate to a larger space at Lenox Square in the coming months. The trendy apparel store will join Hammer Made in occupying the remaining portion of the former Oakley store on the mall's second floor.  The current G-Star is 700 square feet, while its new location is about 1,800 square feet.  In its current space, G-Star shares space with Standard, both owned by Farshad Arshid.  Sources say Standard will not expand into the G-Star space and that a wall will be built between the two with plans to re-lease the G-Star space once they relocate.   

Half Moon Outfitters plans to close its Atlanta location Valentine's night.  The store, located on Virginia Avenue in Virginia-Highland, faced mounting competition from Mountain High Outfitters, which opened in late 2015 at Ponce City Market, as well as High Country Outfitters and chains REI and Dick's Sporting Goods, among others.  

MAC plans to open a new store at Cumberland Mall.  The cosmetics retailer will occupy a 1,171 square foot space on the mall's first floor, adjacent to Apple and close to Macy's.  

Atlanta-based RaceTrac continues to renovate existing locations in an effort to better compete with arch-rival QuikTrip.  In the coming months, RaceTrac plans to renovate the following locations:

444 West Pike Street - Lawrenceville
5700 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard - Norcross
3980 Mundy Mill Road - Oakwood

Speedway plans to begin construction soon on a new 20-pump gas station with a nearly 4,000 square foot convenience store in Lawrenceville.  The new location will be built at 3120 Sugarloaf Parkway and is will be the third in metro Atlanta for the Enon, Ohio-based company. Speedway, a wholly owned subsidiary of Marathon Petroleum Corporation, previously had many locations in metro Atlanta, but they all closed or were converted years ago. In addition to the Lawrenceville location, last year Speedway opened new locations on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in Norcross and on McFarland Parkway in Alpharetta.  

Columbus Ohio based Vernacular, a women's apparel and gift retailer, plans to open in the former Stanton Home Furnishings store in Virginia Highland next month.  The retailer, which currently operates three locations in the greater Columbus area, also has new stores coming soon to Cleveland, OH and Dallas,TX.  

My friends at The Carrollton Menu confirmed today that Carrollton will soon get a second Chick-fil-A restaurant. With one Chick-fil-A already open on South Highway 27, a second freestanding restaurant will open on Bankhead Highway.  The new Chick-fil-A will open in place of Ryan's Buffet, which abruptly closed early last year following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.  News of the upcoming Chick-fil-A was met with tremendous excitement and mixed emotion on The Carrollton Menu's facebook page.  Some readers expressed disappointment in Ryan's replacement not being a Golden Corral, while others wished that its replacement would have been a Chipotle Mexican Grill. Readers who were in favor of Chick-fil-A were hopeful that it would open as a "Dwarf House," the restaurant's hybrid fast-food/full-service concept.   Unfortunately a source at Chick-fil-A indicated to me that no new Dwarf Houses are being built.  There are currently twelve Dwarf House locations including one in Newnan, not far from Carrollton.  David Daniels, who currently operates the existing Carrollton Chick-fil-A, has been selected to operate the new freestanding unit, too. The new Chick-fil-A Carrollton is slated to open late this year.  

Chuy's plans to open its new location at Akers Mill Square by Cumberland Mall Tuesday, February 28th. I broke news of the planned opening this past October. The new restaurant will be the Austin-based chain's third in metro Atlanta following locations in Dunwoody and Kennesaw.   

The Fish Hawk, a Peachtre Road mainstay for many years, will be moving to a new location next month.  Another victim of the apartment onslaught, The Fish Hawk plans to reopen early next month at 764 Miami Circle, not far from the Painted Pin.  

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bummed to hear about Half Moon. I thought they were a great fit in the neighborhood. Always stopped in there while on Highland.

Todd said...

The Newnan Dwarf House will close in March and a new Truetts Grill will be built in its place.

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