Friday, May 20, 2016

The Battery Atlanta Scores Some New Tenants, Others Sought

Mixed-Use project making leasing progress 

The Battery Atlanta, the mixed-use component of the new Atlanta Braves project, has reportedly brought in a pinch hitter to assist in the leasing of the project.  Gary Lewis, a nearly 30 year veteran of Simon Property Group, has  been engaged to consult on the retail/restaurant leasing efforts at the complex.  

Lewis, who held a number of executive roles at Simon's headquarters in Indianapolis, was most recently involved with leasing in Savannah for Ben Carter.  Ben Carter, known to many Atlantans as the guy who had the original vision for Buckhead Avenues The Streets of Buckhead Buckhead Atlanta The Shops Buckhead Atlanta, is now involved in a significant development in Savannah.  Dubbed The Broughton Street Collection, the development has brought many national retailers to Broughton Street. 

It is believed that the leasing team at The Battery is not having the success they had imagined in signing higher end retailers and has turned their attention to bar and entertainment businesses.  

To that end, Fuqua hired Dotan Zuckerman away from North American Properties, where he worked on leasing Avalon in Alpharetta, in hopes that he could bring some of the same names to The Battery.  

I have uncovered preliminary plans for "The Battery Atlanta,"  which shed some light on the direction of the project.  Included in the plans are a number of new-to-market restaurants and retailers as well as some established local operators.  Fuqua Development, known locally for their often grocery and big box anchored-centers, has taken a much different approach with the new development.  

Among the notable tenants are:

Whole Foods  - Listed at about 28,000 square feet, this could be another 365 by Whole Foods Market location.

CinĂ©Bistro - A luxury dinner and a movie complex with an existing location at TOWN Brookhaven, developed by Jeff Fuqua when he was with Sembler.

Under Armour - The Baltimore, Maryland-based sports clothing and accessories company has been looking to open a retail location in metro Atlanta. The Under Armour space is listed as just over 11,000 square feet and is located near Mountain High Outfitters, a Birmingham-based based speciality retailer confirmed for the development.  

Il Mulino - The New York-based upscale Italian restaurant previously had a location in downtown Atlanta at 191 Peachtree.  After opening in late 2008, the restaurant closed in late 2010 and is now Alma Cocina, a modern Mexican restaurant from Atlanta's Fifth Group Restaurants.  

The Cosmetic Market - Nashville-based The Cosmetic Market is similar to Bluemercury (now a division of Macy's) and Ulta and offers a wide variety of cosmetics for both men and women. The retailers only other Atlanta area location is in Avalon in Alpharetta.  

Orvis - Another retailer with an outpost in Avalon, Orvis also has an established presence on Peachtree Road in Buckhead.  The Battery location is listed about just over 5,300 square feet.  

Another, roughly 4,300 square foot space is simply marked "Anne Quatrano." 

Other tenants listed include Anthropologie, Free People, Banana Republic, Bilton Bar, YardHouse, L.L. Bean, Athleta, Kendra Scott, Flywheel, Drybar, Cafe Intermezzo, Build-A-Bear, Bocado, Verizon and SunTrust and Kilwin's. 

Personally I find this list (with the exception of SunTrust) more aspirational than realistic, but time will tell what retailers they are able to secure for the center.  My comment would be, "Show me the Mattress Firm!" 

While I could get no official confirmation to any of the above mentioned tenants, Battery officials did confirm the following list of newly signed tenants.

Wahlburgers, an expanding burger joint from by chef Paul Wahlberg and his actor brothers Mark and Donnie Wahlberg.  The Battery location is one of six planned for metro Atlanta by a local franchisee.  

Dress Up Boutique, a women’s fashion boutique.

Kings Bowl, a retro bowling and high-end food and drink concept that will offer 12 to 16 lanes. 

Mountain High Outfitters, a specialty outdoors merchant.

Harley-Davidson apparel store.

Sugarboo & Co., a gift boutique. 

Goldbergs Bagel Co. & Deli. (surprisingly, no confirmation of a Braves All Star Grill, another Goldbergs Group concept.)

Entertainment venue developer Cordish Cos. plans a trio of concepts including a PBR Bar & Grill (Professional Bull Riders Association), featuring a mechanical bull.  The other Cordish concepts will be a two-level "sports & social club", likely their The Kill Devil Club and a to-be-announced restaurant by a celebrity chef.

Other previously announced tenants include: 
CRU  Food & Wine Bar 
An as yet unnamed steakhouse from Linton Hopkins' Resurgens Hospitality Group. 
Superica The El Felix from Chef Ford Fry
Antico Pizza Napoletana 
Tomahawk Taproom & Fox Bros. BBQ
Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre 
260 room Omni Hotel 

Are you excited by these prospective and confirmed tenants?  Do you feel The Battery Atlanta will be a destination year-round?  What would you like to open in the project?

Please share your thoughts below. 

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

They have done a surprisingly good job with their initial leasing and tenant roster. It will be interesting to see how the place performs on non-game days but it appears that's been the strategy behind the leasing - to make it a year round "destination."

Ham said...

It would seem that restaurants, bars and sports related retailers would do better in that area. I could see getting a burger and shopping at Under Armour, but not sure I’d be visiting Banana Republic. I realize they hope to draw people on days when there are no games, but it seems they should focus on their somewhat captive audience of game attendees first.

Anonymous said...

Their seems to be an overbuilding boom in Atlanta. With expensive apt rents, rising home prices, and the need to be seen riding around (or sitting in traffic) in a luxury vehicle, then the question is do these people have the disposable income to keep these upscale shopping destinations in business?

With that said there are instances where other ballparks have tried with no home runs or touchdowns as far as their shopping and dining attractions are concerned. A reasonable mind cannot fathom spending all that money at the ballpark and then feeling the urge to spend more on either end of the day trip. Only if I lived in the area would I shop there year around. Don't know too many people that want to have a major league ballpark in their backyard except maybe Wrigleyville.

Good luck to them!

Anonymous said...

The difficuty with this list is that most of these are retailers or a type of retailer that already have a deep penetration all over the northside. There isn't anything on that list that would make someone from Alpharetta or Gwinnett drive over to spend a non-game day. It really does read like a carbon copy of Avalon which is nice enough but nothing special or worth a far drive.

Anonymous said...

On days without a ball game, I can not imagine very many people will be motivated to drive from other areas to visit the retailers and restaurants mentioned. On game days, the retailers and restaurants will enjoy collateral customer traffic. But only masochists would venture into that vehicle traffic constipation if they were not also attending the game.

Kev said...

Could you imagine going to a Whole Foods on braves game day?! Crazy

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to see Braves fans tomahawking with their Orvis fly rods and Whole Foods seven-grain baguettes.

Anonymous said...

@2:08 pm and 10:57 pm - I think this place will be more popular than you think. Avalon isn't that accessible for people living on this side of town plus it will likely attract a lot of people driving through Atlanta on 75/285. You won't find me there but given the location and people in the burbs wanting a more urban experience without having to live in the city I actually think it will do well. Time will tell of course.

BK said...

As someone whose office is in the process of moving across the street into Circle 75, the initial list is pretty positive. We're looking forward to lunch spots within easy walking distance that will likely not be super crowded most of the year.

At one time from the old renders and knowing Fuqua's history we thought that maybe the very end against 41 was going to be a Target since variations of the glass barrel corner have been used by Target in their two story store formats in downtown Minneapolis and on Clark Street in Chicago. In all likelihood that's probably the 365 though from this list.

The part I'm still most curious about is what's going on the current giant dirt pile between Circle 75 and 285 just above the existing Hampton Inn. The rough site plans I've seen show stair towers at the corners, semi-truck access and what looks to be a new parking ramp toward the existing Circle 75 tower.

J Payne said...

I personally think Whole Foods would do better taking over the Sports Authority location on the opposite side of The Galleria. Also, when does the Galleria plan on expanding?

I live in the area and would frequent this spot often. Fingers crossed for a Cinebistro.

Anonymous said...

Cobb desperately needs more upscale shopping and dining options and this would be a good location, as long as they maintain the level of quality and don't let it fall into B and C level stores.

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