Wednesday, October 18, 2017

[UPDATE] Chase Looks to Cash in on Perimeter Property

A number of readers reached out with questions about the upcoming development at 4453 Ashford Dunwoody Road across from Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody.  The property, most recently home to the DeKalb County North police precinct, has been vacant since the precinct closed in the fall of 2013.  
The new Chase will likely look like this 
A Pollo Tropical restaurant was proposed on the property in late 2015, but by early 2016 the restaurant had abandoned their plans.  Area residents were primarily opposed to the restaurant on the basis that it would have a drive-thru.  It may be for the best that the restaurant did not get built, as Pollo Tropical has closed four metro Atlanta restaurants in the past year as it struggles to get a foothold in the market.  

After extensive research, ToNeTo Atlanta can now confirm that a new Chase Bank will replace the police precinct.  

Hines, a real estate firm with global headquarters in Houston, Texas and regional headquarters in Ravinia in Dunwoody, owns the roughly one acre parcel.  Hines "gifted" the property to DeKalb County in 1985, but it reverted back to the real estate firm once the precinct closed, per the terms of the original agreement. 

New York City-based Chase will join existing branches of Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Fidelity Bank on Ashford Dunwoody across from Perimeter Mall.  

ToNeTo Atlanta reported in June that a former bank property adjacent to the Chase Bank is being redeveloped into 50,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space and a 200 room hotel.  Additionally, the nearby McDonald's at the corner of Perimeter Center West and Ashford Dunwoody Road, was also former bank property.  

In recent years, Chase has added a number of new branches to metro Atlanta including, but not limited to, those on North Druid Hills in Toco Hills, on Roswell Road in Sandy Springs, and on Peachtree Boulevard in Chamblee.  

The closest Chase Bank to the upcoming Perimeter area branch is on Chamblee-Dunwoody Road in Dunwoody Village, about 2 miles away.  

Despite shifts in bank usage by millennials and others, major financial institutions continue to build new branches across metro Atlanta.   
Rendering of the "Ravinia Row" development 
In addition to the Chase Bank property, Hines also has plans for a 40,000 square foot restaurant heavy development at  nearby 4 Ravinia Drive.   Located at the northeast corner of Ashford-Dunwoody Road and I-285, "Ravinia Row," would include at least four restaurants, according to a rendering for the project.  Ravinia Row, which has been "in the works" for years, is said to be attracting interest from a number of restaurateurs, among them Barteca, and their Barcelona and Bartaco restaurant concepts.  There are currently three Bartaco and two Barcelona restaurants in metro Atlanta.  Barteca CEO Jeff Carcara recently told Nation's Restaurant News that the company is poised for growth with the two brands, but Bartaco will be expand more rapidly. "The brand has the potential to reach a couple hundred units," he said.

Are you surprised that the former police station is becoming a bank?  Has you bank usage decreased in recent years?   What tenants would you like to see open in Ravinia Row? 

Please share your thoughts below.   

***UPDATE: Amy Fingerhut of CBRE, who was the leasing agent for Ravinia Row, informed ToNeTo Atlanta Thursday that the project has been "scrapped."  Despite multiple active listings for the project, including one on commercial real estate website LoopNet that was created 08/18/2015 and was last updated 09/18/2017, Fingerhut asserts that Ravinia Raw was scrapped in 2015.  Fingerhut  says that "costs were too high," but did not elaborate as to what, if anything, might come to the property instead.  The site is currently greenspace with trees.  

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

So the neighbors objected to Pollo Tropical because they didn't want a drive-thru? So I'm sure they'll be thrilled with (another?!?) bank that will certainly have a multi-car drive-thru. Be careful what you fight against...

Anonymous said...

Exactly. You allegedly fight what would have been a suburban development, but now you're stuck with a suburban bank with multi-drive thru and large surface parking.

Anonymous said...

Brick and mortar banks preferred by 87% of customers
http://fortune.com/2016/06/29/retail-banks/

Anonymous said...

People with this thing called Money use banks frequently. There are many that don't have a bank that when receiving a check they must go to the bank the check is written off of to cash. Businesses use banks daily to make deposits and get change for their registers. People gets a wide variety of loans in banks, currency exchange, and safety deposit boxes. I am sure there are other services I failed to mentioned as well. Just because you don't use a bank doesn't mean many others do not. And No, I don't work for a bank for any affiliated financial institution. More bank locations in your community simply means your area is thriving economically.

Anonymous said...

Did the residence of Dunwoody forget that there is a bank building sitting completely empty and not maintained adjacent to where they are now building a new bank.

This property was recently featured in baby driver as Perimeter Bank https://cmgajcbuzz.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/img_5688.jpg?w=640&h=480

Anonymous said...

^^ LOL The Perimeter Trust that was ROBBED during the second heist? You can't make any business buy and build a property they don't want. You can make it attractive to buy a particular piece of property, but if it doesn't meet their needs based on due diligence and what is good for serving their customers then.

The residents of Dunwoody obviously need / want this bank or they wouldn't be building one. Pollo Tropical is struggling in metro Atlanta so that drive thru comparison is mute.

Anonymous said...

@Anon 7:02am

That property is 3+ acres and way too big for just a bank!
ToneToAtl covered that property this past summer - looks like a hotel and a bunch of retail....
http://www.tonetoatl.com/2017/06/planned-perimeter-exchange-project-to.html

I still think that banks draw a lot of their traffic from older people and that they will begin to struggle justifying so many brick and mortar locations so close together when that generation "stops visiting."

Amy said...

your information on Ravinia Row is entirely incorrect. You should pull that down considering we have scrapped that site plan and that development. That is about 2.5 years old. thanks for the follow up on the development. Fake news.

CloseOTP said...

While a bank may be deemed "boring", I'd much rather see a nice bank branch than a dilapidated building or a nail salon or a spa. Let's remember the state of retail today - you can't build a small strip mall and expect a bunch of local businesses to come in. You'd get a strip mall with a Mattress Firm, Metro PCS, Dry Cleaners & my above referenced nail salon! There are plenty of businesses out there I don't use and I do not bemoan the fact that it's a business I don't use in a location that I would prefer another business. I will never go to this bank as I don't bank with Chase, but I don't really care. It's odd when I see others "care" so much.

Anonymous said...

Hines told Dunwoody two years ago that if they did not approve the chicken shack we would get a bank instead. Hines wants walkable food options for the Ravina tenants. We did not want an ugly, soon to die, drive thru restaurant in that prime spot; and Hines refused to allow the one acre parcel to be assembled with the 3 acre dead bank site next door. Now Hines will seriously consider developing the grass field in from of Crown Plaza as restaurants. That zoning for a strip shopping Center precedes the formation of the city of Dunwoody and has been in place at least a decade.

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