[UPDATE] Revitalized Shopping Center Continues to Land New Tenants

Atlanta-based real estate investment company Garner Group has secured two more leases in its continued efforts to enhance a suburban shopping center.  The firm, headquartered in Buckhead, acquired Heritage Hills, a 219,165 square foot shopping center at 1355 East-West Connector in Austell, at the end of 2020.  

At the time, the center was in disrepair, had several large vacancies, and was in need of serious work.  After shelling out $14.75 million for the roughly 13.5 acre property, several new tenants have joined the center, and significant landscape, paving, and amenity improvements have been made.  

A greenspace was added that also connects via sidewalk to what will eventually be about 750 apartment units behind the center.  

On the heels of the recent openings of Eggs Up Grill and Five Below, Garner Group has now inked leases with Atlanta-based Floor & Decor and Orlando-based Olive Garden to open new units in the center.  

Floor & Decor will open a new store adjacent to existing anchor Hobby Lobby.  The stores will share a portion of what was originally a Walmart.  In the case of Floor & Decor, the company will make use of the existing 50,630 square feet currently available and also plans to add an additional 16,270 square feet to create a 66,900 square foot store.  

Founded in 2000, Floor & Decor is today a leading specialty retailer of hard-surface flooring, operating more than 200 warehouse-format stores and five design studios across 36 states.  In Georgia, the company currently operates eleven warehouse-format stores as well as one design studio along Piedmont Road in Buckhead.  The company's first store, along the Northeast Expressway in Brookhaven, was demolished, completely rebuilt, and reopened in August 2022.  

Joining Floor & Decor in Heritage Hills is Olive Garden.  The new Olive Garden restaurant will be built in an outparcl of the center along East-West Connector between existing locations of LongHorn Steakhouse, a fellow Darden Restaurants concept, and The Juicy Crab.  To accommodate Olive Garden, the landlord relocated a retention pond from the parcel that the new restaurant will occupy to a portion of the parking lot behind the restaurants.   

Olive Garden's opening marks the return of an Italian restaurant to the area as The Juicy Crab occupies a building previously home to The Italian Oven, a once regional chain with many locations that is today down to just two in Stockbridge and Peachtree City.  The new Olive Garden restaurant will be about 7,800 square feet and occupy a roughly 1 acre parcel.  

There are currently more than a dozen Olive Garden restaurants around the greater metro Atlanta area including existing Cobb County locations on Cobb Parkway near Truist Park and on Ernest Barrett Parkway across from Town Center at Cobb. 

Are you excited for the additions to Heritage Hills shopping center?  What else would you like to see open in Heritage Hills?  What is your favorite Austell area restaurant?  

Please share your thoughts below.