What Now Atlanta uncovers retailer’s 25 page plan for relocation to Shops Around Lenox.
Crate & Barrel in Buckhead is moving out of Lenox Square Mall.
The furnishings store will relocate to Shops Around Lenox, the recently re-developed shopping center at 3400 Around Lenox Road, directly across the street.
Kathryn Quinn Architects, the architectural company that’s designed CB2s and other Crate & Barrels, is designing the furnishing store’s new Buckhead location.
An excruciatingly detailed architectural plan — 25 pages of sketches and project details — created in April was uncovered during an internet search Monday. Oh Google, how we love thee (click here to see the plan).
Rob Ray, manager for Crate & Barrel at Lenox Square, told What Now Atlanta over the phone Monday he was unable to confirm or deny Crate & Barrel’s relocation. That is until we told him we had the pans in hand.
“I will confirm we are moving,” Ray said. “[Shops Around Lenox] is where [Crate & Barrel] has been thinking about heading to.”
The actual space Crate & Barrel will occupy at Shops Around Lenox has not been confirmed. Insiders told Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Lisa Schoolcraft last November that the furnishings store was looking at about 24,000 square feet in the space once occupied by CompUSA, which pulled out of metro Atlanta in 2007.
Crate & Barrel’s public relations and corporate offices were contacted on multiple occasions for comment but were not immediately available.
14 Responses
Good for them! The Alpharetta store is very beautiful so I’ve got high expectations for the new location!
Good move for them. I am in minority on this, but Lenox has to improve it’s accessibility and experience or more will leave. Parking is a pain and teens don’t spend and drive away those who do. Time for Simon to get it’s act together.
As someone with some experience in retail site selection these tenants moving to Shops Around Lenox baffles me almost as much as retailer’s fear of Midtown. Shops Around Lenox has ZERO visibility from any road and from anything other than Lenox giving C&B lower rent but the exact same captive customer base they had in the mall only they are less conviently located to them, now causing mall customers to have to walk through a parking lot or drive to them. Also I would be interested to know what percentage of their cutsomers view them as a destination thinking, “I need to go to Crate and Barrel today” instead of ending up there and purchasing something as a result of browsing in Lenox. I for one have never made a dedicated trip to C&B and haven’t even gone to Lenox as a result of them being there, but I have gone in and bought something on multiple occasions because I was already at Lenox. That being said I also wonder exactly what C&B sees as their clientele and trade area. Is it really better for these retailers to be hidden from the road in a mall parking lot in Buckhead than to be street level in Midtown? I especially wonder this about American Apparel. I think Pottery Barn and C&B would be well served to be located on Peachtree between 10th and 14th where you capture walking traffic from Midtown and Ansley Park which both have strong percentages of the demos these retailers seek. You are also driving distance from the Westide, Collier Road, VaHi, Inman Park, O4W, all the south Buckhead neighborhoods, and pretty much central to all of intown Atlanta. As well as being located on a future transit line connecting these neighborhoods. Retailers are either making some big mistakes or there are some bad RE Brokers in this town right now.
these are exterior drawings and details, probably put together by the consultant OldCastle Building Envelope, not by the architect.
If you’ve ever bought a big piece of furniture from CB at Lenox before you’ll probably be happy that they’re going to move to a freestanding store. The logistics of getting items out of that store was somewhat challenging.
Steve, I was just in the mall on Saturday and today and there was nothing out of the ordinary. People were fine and so was the experience. I don’t understand people in this city at all. More retailers are coming to Lenox then leaving.
And by the way, this is a company decision nation-wide. Crate & Barrel no longer wants to be in mall but in “free standing” stores. It has nothing to do with the “experience” at Lenox.
This would be a perfect space for a giant H&M! 🙂
Alas! This space is ideal for the rumored mall chicken sausage emporium.
As I’ve said before, this space could go three ways.
One- to a restaurant space, something national that would require two floors that doesn’t already have a presence in Buckhead. I’m thinking P.F. Chang’s.
Two- Rip out the stairs and escalators and divide the space into two floors again, creating two large store spaces that could house a Mango, Juicy or Intermix or Lacoste relocated, Desigual, or even a Caroline Herrera.
or Three- Flagship location for an international retailer. Being two floors and such a large and expensive peachtree street facing location, it would have to be something big and guaranteed to do well. After working for H&M, they seem happy with the money invested into their 2 story Atlanta flagship at Atlantic Station, and don’t plan on building anymore stores for a few years if at all in Metro Atlanta. So that leaves us with what would do well with that big of a space? Pottery Barn made the right move, as did Banana Republic.
It’d be nice if Express would finally give Atlanta the flagship door that we deserve.
door = store in my earlier post
@Jonathan: Interestingly, Express used to have a 2-level store at Lenox until about 1995 when the upper level was completed and they relocated to their current space (albeit since renovated).
I couldve sworn Forever 21 was looking at building a flagship store in at least part of this space. Maybe I just imagined that.
Believe it our not the elevator is the most expensive thing in the store. Closing down in March. Will be in new location in April with a smaller staff.