The development team behind Summerhill will begin construction later this year on the new 50,000-square-foot Publix grocery store as part of the mixed-use development, it announced on Thursday.
In an event including Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Carter President and CEO Scott Taylor, and Atlanta City Councilwoman Carla Smith, among other attendees, commercial real estate developer Carter said it has finalized a lease with Publix for a new location along Hank Aaron Drive.
The store will operate near a number of other new and upcoming retail businesses along Hank Aaron Drive to the west and Georgia Avenue to the south. Slated to surround the Publix store between Hank Aaron Drive and Fraser Street is about 35,000 square feet of ancillary retail featuring a variety of service-oriented tenants like banks, healthcare providers, fast-casual restaurants, and fitness studios, according to Carter.
“Since the very first neighborhood meeting in the summer of 2014, the top priority of Summerhill residents has been to bring a grocery store to the community,” Taylor said in a statement. “Our leasing team has worked relentlessly to turn this dream into a reality.”
Led by a partnership between Carter, K. King & Company, and Healey Weatherholtz Properties, Summerhill is an 80-acre mixed-use development aimed at invigorating the Turner Field area. Along with more than 80,000 square feet of Publix-anchored retail, the underway Phase 1 is bringing about 100 for-sale townhomes by Hedgewood Homes, along with a 306-unit multifamily development, among other components.
The anchor of the entire project is Georgia State University, which owns the stadium property.
The development team has already finished the renovation of existing buildings along Georgia Avenue, and earlier this year it completed construction of an 11,000-square-foot retail building as part of the project. It has also signed leases with a handful of tenants for space along Georgia Avenue, including Wood’s Chapel BBQ, Halfway Crooks Beer, and Little Tart Bakeshop.
What Now Atlanta reported in March that Publix would occupy the community’s grocery store space.
“When we embarked upon the transformation of Turner Field, the consistent plea from the community was access to fresh and healthy food options,” Bottoms said.
“With this grocery store, a food desert in the heart of our city has been removed. Thank you to Carter, Publix and our partners for this investment in the health and wellbeing of Atlanta.”
One Response
That surface parking lot is dreadful. They couldn’t come up with a more community-appropriate (non-suburban) design?