Bits & Bites [Commercial Real Estate News Atlanta]

This post has been in the works since April so some news may be slightly outdated while other bits are as fresh as ever.  Thanks as always for your continued tips, readership, photos, tweets and "love your blog" notes - they mean more than you know! 

Ameris Bank plans to open a new Chastain Park branch September 1.  The new branch will occupy the former SunTrust at 3174 Roswell Road in Powers Ferry Square.  The 1,894 square foot branch became available in 2020 when SunTrust and BB&T started to close overlapping branches following their merger and the subsequent creation of Truist.  A BB&T/SunTrust combo branch remains in business just north of the Ameris site.  The SunTrust building was completely renovated in 2017, leaving limited significant work for Atlanta-based Ameris to complete.  The new Chastain Park Ameris will be the second branch in Buckhead for the growing bank with its other located in Ameris Center at 3500 Piedmont Road.

Chronic Tacos has closed its restaurant in Chamblee.  Situated in the Parkview on Peachtree development along Peachtree Boulevard, Chronic Tacos opened in the street level space in September 2018 and reportedly closed abruptly earlier this week.  Readers familiar with the restaurant and reviewers on social sites indicate that the Chamblee restaurant changed both management and ownership late last year.  A second location of the Aliso Viejo, California-based chain remains open near North Point Mall in Alpharetta.  

Yummy Place Korean Fried Chicken & Rice Bowls will open in place of Chronic Tacos in Chamblee.  The new location will join the locally owned restaurant's original location in Duluth and a recently opened second location in the old Caribou Coffee/Uncle Maddio's Pizza/Poke Bar at the Edgewood Retail District on Caroline Street in East Atlanta.  

Clothing boutique South Moon Under recently closed its outpost at Ponce City Market.  The nearly 2,900 square foot store opened in early April 2017 and was the first in the market to open.  The Annapolis, Maryland-based retailer remains open at Shops Around Lenox in Buckhead and Avalon in Alpharetta.  

A new location of Woodhouse Day Spa is opening at The Irby in Buckhead Village.  The new Buckhead location marks the third in metro Atlanta for the Lakewood, Colorado-based franchise.  The company has existing locations in Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody and at Avalon in Alpharetta.  In Buckhead, the new Woodhouse is opening in the street level retail of The Irby apartment development at the corner of Cains Hill Place and Irby Avenue.  Woodhouse joins bakery café Le Bon Nosh as confirmed tenants in the project.  Le Bon Nosh, from chef/owner Forough Vakili, is slated to open later this summer.

Miller's Ale House recently opened its third Georgia location.  ToNeTo Atlanta first reported on the Florida-based chain's plans to open in Kennesaw this past October.  Located at 745 Chastain Road, Miller's occupies the former California Dreaming, which closed in May of 2019.  The new Miller's joins existing locations in Alpharetta and McDonough.  A fourth location is in the works for Dawsonville near the North Georgia Premium Outlets, with another still in the pipeline for Peachtree Corners.  

Experiential plant store PlantHouse has not one but two Atlanta locations expected to open in the coming months.  The Virginia Beach-based family business previously confirmed its plans to open at the new 120 West Trinity project in Decatur but will also open a new roughly 4,400 square foot location at the new Star Metals development on Howell Mill Road in West Midtown.  "PlantHouse is an experienced based terrarium workshop and premium plant store."  Both stores, which will feature do-it-yourself terrariums, organized classes, premium plant shopping, and "a modern yet eclectic ceramic collection," are slated to open fall/winter 2021.  There are also rumblings of a potential Buckhead location in the future.  

The Dutch opened in June at EVOQ flats in Johns Creek.  ToNeTo Atlanta first reported on the planned opening in November 2019 but COVID-19 delayed their opening several months.    The bakery and café from husband and wife Martin and Arpana Satyu-Burge of Dutch Monkey Doughnuts features not only select doughnuts and specialty frites but also assorted scones, cookies, and croissants, all made in house.  The eatery also features assorted coffees, teas and sodas as well as housemade soft serve!  The Dutch is located just off Medlock Bridge Road at 1900 Everly Lane.  

Farm Burger reopened their Midtown  Atlanta outpost July 12 after closing it last spring as the pandemic forced many offices to shut down.  Farm Burger Midtown is located at the corner of 14th and Spring Streets in the street level of Whole Foods Market.  

Bring It Om yoga studio at Andrews Square in Buckhead closed in early July after a little over two years in operation.  Business partners Elizabeth Beggs and Leticia Lopez opened the 2,645 square foot studio in February 2019 after a series of pop-ups around town.  

O’Brian’s Tavern closed June 9 after about nine years in Dunwoody.  The restaurant, located at 2486 Mount Vernon Road, occupied a 2,400 square foot space in the Lidl-anchored shopping center.  O'Brian's was part of Dunwoody Restaurant Group which includes: Dunwoody Tavern, Iron Horse Tavern, The Ship & Anchor Pub, The Bat & Ball Pub, The King George Tavern and The Duke.  The group closed The Royal Oak and the Black Swan Tavern in 2020.  Despite O'Brian's having closed over a month ago, it's still shown as the tenant on the site plan for the Branch Properties owned center.  

A new restaurant called Crabs R Us hopes to open soon in the former Bojangles at 7140 Jimmy Carter Boulevard in Peachtree Corners.  The freestanding restaurant opened in late 2013 and was one of four that the Charlotte-based chicken chain shuttered in metro Atlanta in late 2019.  Surprisingly, despite the increased importance of a drive-thru for restaurants, Crabs R Us has converted the former drive-thru lane into a fenced in patio.  

A new location of growing retailer pOpshelf  is coming to Roswell.  The Dollar General owned concept store is similar to Five Below with the majority of the store's merchandise less than $10.  The new 10,359 square foot Roswell pOpshelf is opening in Roswell Village shopping center where it will join anchors Marshalls, Ross and Famous Footwear among others, in the revamped center at the corner of Highway 9 and Holcomb Bridge Road. 

Kouzina Christos reopened July 1 in its new home at 1255 Johnson Ferry Road in East Cobb.  Locals will know the center as being home to East Cobb favorites Bagelicious and Ali's Cookies, among others.  ToNeTo Atlanta exclusively reported on chef/owner Christos Giannes' plans to reopen his beloved restaurant this past March.  This past December, Giannes closed his namesake restaurant at Terrell Mill Village after more than four decades in business.  

A new Tesla service center is opening in the former Babies R Us at 1875 Greers Chapel Road, just off Barrett Parkway and behind the upcoming Barrett Corners project.  The soon-to-be renovated roughly 42,000 square foot building is currently being marketed for sale. 

Specialty clothing retailer Zumiez is planning to open its first intown store at Lenox Square in Buckhead.  The new store is slated to replace Lady Foot Locker on the mall's Plaza Level.  Established in Seattle in 1978, Zumiez has today grown to include more than 700 stores, more than 600 of which are in the U.S.  The new store's location was likely chosen given the customer overlap between it and nearby VANS, a brand it also sells.  The Buckhead store is about 2,400 square feet and is the fourteenth in the state, joining other locations in Town Center at Cobb in Kennesaw, Cumberland Mall in Atlanta and Mall of Georgia in Buford, among others.    

Permits filed with the City of Atlanta suggest that Marc Jacobs will also be opening a new store at Lenox Square.  According to permits filed earlier this month, the luxury boutique plans to spend nearly $4 million building out their roughly 3,000 square foot space on the mall's main level.  According to the Lenox Square site plan, Marc Jacobs will occupy a space currently home to women's shoe retailer Marmi.  There are only two other traditional (non-outlet) Marc Jacobs stores in America: one on Madison Avenue in New York, the other on Melrose Place in Los Angeles.  

The Peach Cobber Café is expanding at Shops of Buckhead.  The restaurant, which early this year replaced Big Al's Butter Made Burgers, will soon swell from 1,420 square feet to more than 4,300 square feet.  Peach Cobber, like Big Al's before it, is owned by entrepreneur Alre Alston.  The restaurant is an homage to Alston's grandmother Ruby whose influence is all over the southern soul food offered at the restaurant.  The expansion is made possible by the recent relocation and downsizing of upscale consignment store Alexis' Suitcase, which relocated to the upper level of the center and reduced its size from about 3,000 square feet to just under 1,000 square feet.  In addition to the south Buckhead expansion, an employee at the restaurant indicated that other new locations are planned for Mt Zion Boulevard, Fayetteville, and  Roosevelt Highway.  

Sprouts Farmers Market is expected to open their newest Atlanta area location August 4 in Buford.  The new store, located in the new Exchange @ Gwinnett, will be the Phoenix, Arizona-based grocer's seventeenth in Georgia.  The new store, like another planned for Smyrna, will showcase the grocer's updated logo, latest design package and slightly smaller store.  The Smyrna store, located in Heritage Pavilion, replaces a shuttered Cost Plus World Market and is expected to open before the end of the year.  

Effective July 1, the Duluth franchise of Sharetea closed and the independently owned, non-franchised Samurai Tea opened in the same space.  Sharetea Duluth first opened January 2019 and the menu is reportedly very similar then and now.   

Sidelines Grille in the Shoppes of Acworth [3450 Cobb Parkway NW] in Acworth has closed.  

bartaco will open what will be its fourth Atlanta area location in Vinings Jubilee.  The new restaurant will open in the freestanding building vacated last January by Guaco Joe's, a Mexican concept from Atlanta's Metrotainment Cafes.  The Connecticut-based concept entered the Atlanta market in 2014 when they opened on Marietta Street on the Westside.  A second location opened the following year at Powers Ferry Square in Chastain Park, followed by a third, also in 2015, at Inman Quarter in Inman Park.  Scott Lawson, bartaco's co-founder and CEO, grew up in Vinings, with the area holding significant personal importance to him.  Bartaco is one of several restaurant concepts majority owned by private equity firm L Catterton.  Velvet Taco, another concept majority owned by L Catterton, recently opened its second Atlanta area location at The Interlock on the Westside.  

Rooms To Go will in August open their second Atlanta area freestanding location of their new Rooms To Go Patio concept.  The new Rooms To Go Patio is opening at 6551 North Point Parkway in an outparcel of North Point Mall.  The new store replaces Pier 1 which closed all of its stores in 2020.  The freestanding store's original life was as a Zany Brainy, a now defunct children's toy store.  The new patio furniture focused store joins the other existing RTG Patio store along Barrett Parkway in Kennesaw.  There are also shop-in-shop Patio stores at Rooms To Go stores in McDonough and Buford.  The new Alpharetta store is expected to open August 12.    

A new location of Buffalo Wild Wings GO is planned for Cumming.  The new restaurant, situated between an existing Starbucks and a recently opened MOD Pizza, will occupy the remaining 1,700 square feet of the former Atlanta Bread not taken by the quick-serve pizza joint. The three restaurants all share space in an outparcel of the sprawling Cumming Marketplace shopping center along Buford Highway.  The new Cumming Buffalo Wild Wings GO will be at least the third unit for the budding offshoot of the main Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant.  The takeout oriented concept debuted last year in Sandy Springs not far from the headquarters of Inspire Brands, the owner of Buffalo Wild Wings, among other brands.  The company in May opened a second GO unit opened on Oxford Road in Emory Village across from the Emory University campus.  A third location is planned for Georgia Tech at 68 5th Street in place of Chuck's Famous, between Waffle House and Great Clips.  Real estate sources tell ToNeTo Atlanta that the company is actively seeking several other locations around metro Atlanta.  

Target has revealed the locations of its roughly 100 ULTA shop-in-shop stores.  In metro Atlanta, the beauty and cosmetics retailer will open mini stores in three Target stores:   Super Target stores in Roswell Corners (Roswell) and Ashford Place (Dunwoody) and the recently renovated standard Target at Lindbergh Plaza (Buckhead South).  A recent release from Target indicated the initial stores will begin to open in August with plans for as many as 700 more in the future.  

The owners of Food Terminal are bringing their popular Asian eatery to Alpharetta.  The new Food Terminal, a restaurant specializing in Asian street foods with an emphasis on Malaysian cuisine, will open at 6360 North Point Parkway in an outparcel of the huge North Point Marketcenter shopping center.  Fuddruckers closed in 2019 and the building has sat idle in the years since.  The new Alpharetta Food Terminal will be the restaurant's third, joining the original location along Buford Highway in Chamblee and second location along Marietta Street in West Midtown.   

Atlanta-based Roark Capital Group in May acquired Nothing Bundt Cakes (NBC).  Founded in Addison, Texas in 1997, NBC today has nearly 400 units with system-wide sales of $470 million.    Roark Capital Group purchased the business from  Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, another private equity firm, who in 2016 purchased what was then a 175 unit chain.  Terms of Roark's acquisition were not disclosed.  NBC is the 29th restaurant investment for Roark.

A second Atlanta area location of workout studio Pepper Boxing is coming soon to Buckhead.  The new studio will open at 3090 Early Street where it will open in place of a former Sherwin Williams following the paint retailer's 2020 relocation to 3193 Roswell Road.  Permits filed with the City of Atlanta indicate that an estimated $500,000 will be spent converting the 4,450 square foot former paint store to meet the needs of the boxing studio.   The original Atlanta location of Pepper Boxing opened at The Battery Atlanta in 2019.  Alexander "Pepper" opened the original Pepper Boxing in Nashville's Green Hills neighborhood in 2017 but it has been "temporarily" [and some say permanently] closed for the past several months.  In Buckhead, Pepper's opening will put it in direct competition with Fit9, a similar studio located around the corner on Cains Hill Place. 

A new location of Knuckies Hoagies is slated to open soon in Sandy Springs.  The growing sandwich chain will open its second overall location at 6135 Roswell Road in a freestanding building just north of the Modera The Morgan Sandy Springs apartment development.  The building in which the sandwich shop is opening was most recently Kremo ice cream and Gong Cha tea.  Knuckies Hoagies is the simplified concept created after the original introduction of Knuckies Pizza and Hoagies.  There is currently one Knuckies Hoagies open in Milton with plans for a third location to open later this fall at the new Sandy Springs Marketplace in East Cobb.  

Postino WineCafe plans to enter the Atlanta market with an outpost at Tuxedo Festival in Chastain Park.  The Phoenix-based restaurant is part of Upward Projects which operates a total of five different concepts.  Brentwood Associates, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, took a majority stake in the business in late 2017 to fuel its expansion.  Brentwood previously backed Zoës Kitchen and currently has stakes in Blaze Pizza, Snooze an A.M. Eatery and Chicken Salad Chick, among other investments.  The new Buckhead Postino will open in the roughly 4,100 square foot space left vacant in late 2017 following the closure of Flip Burger Boutique.  Postino currently has locations in Arizona, Colorado and Texas with is menu most similar to Barcelona Wine Bar with a mix of small plates, bruschettas, paninis, soups, salads and assorted wines, beers and cocktails. 

Fairway Social opened May 25 at The Maxwell in downtown Alpharetta.  The new venue, a concept from CS Ventures, brings premium golf and other sport simulators in addition to cornhole and a bar and restaurant to the 11,000 square foot space.   

A third Atlanta area location of pizza franchise Flippin' Pizza recently opened in  Avondale Estates.  The new restaurant is situated alongside Kafenio Greek Diner at the Willis Avondale apartment complex at 2700 East College Avenue.  The Santa Monica-based franchise company has existing Atlanta area locations in Roswell and Milton.  The restaurant specializes in New York pizza, offered both by the pie and by the slice.   

If you have ever been helped by literally anyone in customer service, read this and  have some empathy for those who have continued to serve customers/guests/clients and the public at large despite the mental and financial toll it has taken on them.