Dan Whisenhunt
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Decaturish
September 19th, 2024
Tomorrow’s News Today, a local real estate website known for getting top-shelf scoops, says it has insider information linking Trader Joe’s to a mixed-use development at the Baby Kroger site in downtown Decatur.
The property is expected to have a grocer occupying about 14,500 square feet.
“Multiple real estate sources confirmed to ToNeTo Atlanta that Trader Joe’s is the planned grocer, but the deal is not yet 100% done,” Tomorrow’s News Today reported while noting the size of the grocer is “far smaller than any traditional grocer but is basically the exact size of a prototypical Trader Joe’s.”
To read the full story, click here.
Dan Bara, chief operating officer of Pope and Land which owns the property, declined to comment about the Tomorrow’s News Today story saying there’s “nothing to discuss at this time.”
Bara previously declined to confirm to Decaturish whether the tenant was a long-coveted Trader Joe’s store, but advised, “Don’t read too much into it.”
“We never deny or confirm,” he said.
He said he hoped he could share more information in October or November.
Pope and Land hired AMLI Residential to develop a mixed-use development on it. The 4.3-acre site is located at 720-750 Commerce Drive. Decatur’s Baby Kroger on Commerce Drive has been vacant since December 2022. The building at 750 Commerce previously housed offices for the Decatur and DeKalb housing authorities.
The Decatur Downtown Development Authority, on Sept. 6, approved a resolution of support for the proposed project with conditions. Assistant City Manager Angela Threadgill has been in conversations with Pope and Land for over a year as they were making plans for the property.
The DDA conditions were that the developers would come back before the board with the design and housing plan before permitting, create an entrance to the grocery store off of the planned public plaza, and create a connection point between the property and the Decatur Cemetery.
Plans for the project include 358 multifamily units, a 642-space parking deck, and 26,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. Bara said the project is being designed and oriented toward the grocery store and said a grocer had been identified.
He did not say who the grocer is, but he said they are reputable, and he thinks the community will be excited about the tenant.
“They want to be in Decatur. They want to be at this site, and they want to be in this project,” Bara said previously. “There’s a lot of excitement on both ends of the table. We think the project is going to require it. The project’s going to happen with them or the project is probably not going to happen, realistically, because it’s a critical component of the project.”
For more information about the mixed-use project, click here.
This story was provided by WABE content partner Decaturish. Decaturish Assistant editor Zoe Seiler contributed to this story.
