Thursday, January 12, 2017

Changes Are in Store at Lenox Square

Popular Buckhead mall sees flurry of activity. 

In the past few days, a number of stores have either closed permanently or relocated temporarily at Lenox Square. In addition, at least one new-to-market retail store will open in the mall in the coming months.   

Oakley closed their 2,853 square foot store on the second floor of Lenox last week.  A sign posted on the store's entrance announces the closure and directs customers to the Oakley [vault] store in Dawsonville at the North Georgia Premium Outlets. A store at North Point Mall in Alpharetta previously closed.  

Hammer Made, a new-to-market men's retailer, will take over a portion of the former Oakley store, according to permits filed with the City of Atlanta. The permit indicates that Hammer Made will occupy 1,009 square feet of the Oakley space with as many as two other suites carved from the larger space.  

Based in Galleria Edina, MN, Hammer Made is a line of "limited edition" men's shirts, T-shirts, socks, and ties introduced by entrepreneur Jason Hammerberg, aka "Hammer."  There are currently seven Hammer Made stores open, thus far exclusively in Minneapolis and Illinois.  

According to the company's website, dress shirts retail for about $150, ties for about $70, T-shirts for about $35-40 and socks for ten bucks or so.   The building permit indicates the company plans to spend a quarter million dollars converting the space to suit their needs.  

In other Lenox Square news, The Limited has closed their 4,377 square foot second floor store.  The closure, which I reported on last month, followed the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. While the Lenox store remained open longer than others, it too, like the chain itself, is now closed for good.  

Across from The Limited, Crocs closed their store last month. The 2,810 square foot Crocs store is now being occupied by Pandora as their store on the lower level is renovated.  
Pandora has temporarily relocated to the former Crocs  
Elsewhere on the second floor in the Luxury Wing, the 1,740 square foot one-time Nicole Miller space sits empty, as does the 4,968 square former Boston Proper space. 

In addition to these retail vacancies, Lenox Square has yet to replace Prime, once part of Here to Serve Restaurants, which abruptly shuttered in the fall of 2015.  The 6,230 square foot space is, well, a "prime" location and given its visibility, is a bit surprising to still be vacant.  The Lenox Square leasing team is no doubt being choosy about who they fill the space with, but I gotta think they are close to having a deal in place. I previously announced that Simon had signed a lease with Savannah's Daniel Reed Hospitality Group to bring "Daniel Reed's Public Kitchen & Bar" to Twist, another former Here to Serve restaurant, at Phipps Plaza later this fall.  

What would you like to see open in the various vacant spaces at Lenox Square?  Are you familiar with Hammer Made? What type of restaurant do you think makes the most sense as a replacement to Prime?

Please share your thoughts below.  

6 comments:

Imandy said...

I have never heard of Hammer Made but was excited to research it as I have myself only recently begun to really splurge on luxury dress shirts. There really is nothing like it. Before I was a Macys special kinda guy, Seacrest, CK, etc.

For $150 I was expecting to see a story but all I read were they fit well and supposedly used good fabric. Not made in America or nothing.
Even Brooks Brothers makes all their luxury and custom shirts in North Carolina and three quarters of their suits are still made in Boston.

Ham said...

Not really a surprise that any of these places closed. I hope that this doesn’t result in more retailers leaving Phipps to grab a space at Lenox. I remember when I was a kid how special a trip to Phipps was and although they still have some nice stores the place seems more and more like just another small mall struggling for tenants.

Anonymous said...

That legoland ruined Phipps. I miss that food court.

AJ said...

@Anon - Totally agree with you re: legoland. So short sided of Simon. They're usually better with their properties. But they went for the quick buck. I wonder how Legoland is doing. I hope they're doing well, but if not and they close, that'll be a colossal waste of space that won't be able to be filled without ripping it apart and rebuilding.

Anonymous said...

Really miss Prime. In the day it was a great "not so mally" mall restaurant.
Good food choices and high quality at fairly reasonable prices. Would often go there when not necessarily going to the mall. Will be difficult to find a good
replacement, but it needs to be a high priority by the powers that be at Lenox.

leedart said...

I too remember Phipps as a super quality mall. I went there last week and quickly noticed the quality planters and the extra design layer that it and other soft scape items added were gone. Replaced by cheap looking too small-in-scale planters, etc. Add a gaggle of children on the top floor made me nervous want to go back. I'll fly to Mia, NYC, or Paris for the experience.... I will not be going down the street to the streets project which is what it seems like was the plan with what has to be a handshake deal to push that project and ruin Phipps. I hope Saks, Gucci, TiffanCo, and others are paying attention to this awfully obvious cheap game. If this just happened, the sales team needs to be FIRED!

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