Thursday, November 15, 2012

Family Dollar Vacates Moores Mill Village...Demolition to Follow?

Moores Mill Village at Bolton Road and Marietta Boulevard has been targeted for redevelopment
for over 3 years, and it looks like things might finally be headed in the right direction.  Long time tenant CVS Pharmacy closed their inline location in 2008 and opened a new free standing pharmacy in place of a Value Village thrift store in 2009.  Now Family Dollar, another longtime tenant of the center, is leaving to relocate to a new facility across the street.  My guess is this movement is a sign that progress is being made behind the scenes and that resolution of the fate of the center may be near. 

Family Dollar plans to construct a new location at 2344 Marietta Boulevard, basically across the street from the current location.  I visited the Family Dollar store and was told by a store employee that although she was originally told the new store would be open in January, she was more recently told March.  Given the store has yet to be built, it may be closer to late spring.

Columbia, South Carolina based Edens & Avant wants to redevelop the aging Moores Mill Village shopping center and hopes to demolish it next year to make way for what had previously been announced as a Publix-anchored shopping center.  One of the major sticking points for the project is the developer's request for TAD funding.  Another issue is the odor from the nearby water treatment plant, an odor that at times is quite pungent.  The project was originally slated to begin construction in 2010 but has been stalled. 

Edens is also responsible for the redevelopment of Toco Hills in DeKalb county and Merchants Walk in Cobb county.  The group also owns Lenox Marketplace in Buckhead, home to Target and Dick's Sporting Goods, among others. 

A former bank and old McDonald's lie not far from the center and perhaps could themselves see renewed interest if the new center finally takes shape.

Do you live nearby?  Do you frequent this area to or from work?  What would you like to see opened in the center?  Please share your thoughts below. 

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do live in this area. It has definitely been a long time coming for this shopping center to get demolished. I moved to the area over 5 years ago, and I think there might have been 1-2 open stores in the entire place other than the old CVS and Family Dollar. They cleared out a couple smaller sections maybe 2-3 years ago and then stopped.

I'm most often up here because of the adjacent Racetrac. It's the cheapest place in the entire city to get gasoline, and it's the closest gas station to me (really, the ONLY gas station within 3 miles, until that Chevron opens on Chattahoochee)

As for what goes in here, I've suggested before that I doubt a Publix would go in, with one not far away on Collier.

Though you can't tell from just driving down Marietta Blvd, this area is growing fairly rapidly. New homes are being built and sold quickly in my neighborhood.

Anonymous said...

I live in the area and as far as I know, this development is still being held up in the courts. There is an intervener who is taking it to the Supreme Court over how funds are being used for the project. Most everyone in the neighborhood is incredibly frustrated that one person is holding up positive growth for the entire community. I've actually seen a plan for the new development and Publix was part of it... but the bonds have to go through before ANYTHING can happen and the longer it's delayed, the more likely they'll get frustrated and pull out.

This was the correspondence we received from our Councilmember:

As previously reported, Judge Dempsey filed the Validation Order for the Perry Bolton TAD Series 2012 Bonds on May 23rd and on June 22nd an appeal of this Order was filed with the Supreme Court of Georgia.

This matter was docketed by the Supreme Court on September 19th. Per our attorneys, the appellants are required to file their brief by October 9th after which the City will file a response by October 29th. We hope that the Supreme Court will review the case during the January 2013 term and rule by July 31, 2013.

Our attorneys also advised that there is a chance that the case will be sent to the Georgia Court of Appeals, which would delay a final decision.

As a reminder, we will not be in a position to issue bonds to fund projects in the Perry Bolton TAD until the appeal process has concluded.

As always, I will keep you updated.

Councilmember Felicia A. Moore

Anonymous said...

Our neighborhood is growing with lots of new families. We need a full publix in this neighborhood. The publix on Collier is way too small and bad parking...
More shopping stores will generate more revenue for our area.
The Marta bus need to park away from race track (bad area to park)


Anonymous said...

Last I heard Publix was still in the mix. Part of the issue was that Publix had a couple years there where they internally halted all new developments not related to replacing/relocation of existing stores. The other part was the original design of the whole development relied heavily on the mixed use live/work/play model with a large amount of residential development. Publix is building again, but I have a feeling the amount of residential space is going to be greatly reduced. I had a part in some of the initial designs, but due to the economy was forced into moving firms since then. Edens has already completed much of the internal demolition of the exisitng vacant spaces and all of the asbestos abatement 2-3 years ago. I'd really love to see some semblance of what was proposed built soon as it was going to be quite a bit more interesting that your typical Publix anchored strip center.

Anonymous said...

As a resident of the area for 10 years now, is is extremely discouraging driving past that mess every day. It has looked devastatingly the same for a decade. Given the glorious development along the beltline in East Atlanta, I am further disheartened by the delay. How about some love from the city for the Westside? Given that the plans for the beltline on this part of town are YEARS away, we could use all the help we can get. I understand the economics of the last few years, but if there is a developer chomping at the bit, how can that not be a good thing? That corridor is SO heavily traveled -even more so given the new bridge over the Hooch completed two years ago - that it amazes me that something hasn't happened sooner.

As for the smell from the water treatment plants, I live about a quarter mile away from that development and every so often I do smell the plants, but it is very infrequent and much less that it used to be. I can see how that might hinder development of residential units, but why would it affect retail development?

Anonymous said...

As a resident of the area for 10 years now, is is extremely discouraging driving past that mess every day. It has looked devastatingly the same for a decade. Given the glorious development along the beltline in East Atlanta, I am further disheartened by the delay. How about some love from the city for the Westside? Given that the plans for the beltline on this part of town are YEARS away, we could use all the help we can get. I understand the economics of the last few years, but if there is a developer chomping at the bit, how can that not be a good thing? That corridor is SO heavily traveled -even more so given the new bridge over the Hooch completed two years ago - that it amazes me that something hasn't happened sooner.

As for the smell from the water treatment plants, I live about a quarter mile away from that development and every so often I do smell the plants, but it is very infrequent and much less that it used to be. I can see how that might hinder development of residential units, but why would it affect retail development?

Anonymous said...

i moved into the area in Oct of 2013 and so far i love the area and the surrounding neighborhoods and seeing a new development go in with a Publix anchoring the area would be an AWESOME impact for the Bolton community. The new Family Dollar is slated to open in late March/early April 2014 and im excited to see the OLD Moore's Mill Shopping center come DOWN. Hopefully the surrounding section 8 housing will come down as our Mayor Reed has been doing well with.

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