Long-awaited grocery store for Atlanta’s Summerhill neighborhood a step closer to reality
A real estate company says it’s closed on land in the Summerhill neighborhood that will transform a parking lot into a shopping center that will include a grocery store. The Federal reserve is expected at its meeting this week to raise its key interest rate by a substantial three-quarters of a point for the third consecutive time. Another hike that large would lift its benchmark rate — which affects many consumer and business loans — to a range of 3% to 3.25%, the highest level in 14 years.
Emil Moffatt/WABE News
Atlanta’s Summerhill neighborhood is one step closer to landing a major grocery store.
The real estate firm behind the project, Branch Properties, has finalized a deal for land adjacent to Georgia State’s football stadium.
The plans call for a Publix grocery store and other retail tenants to occupy what has been a parking lot along Hank Aaron Drive and Georgia Avenue.
“There’s tremendous demand in this market,” said Jesse Shannon, Brach’s Chief Investment Officer. “It’s an underserved market from a grocery and retail perspective.”
For years, residents of Summerhill have had limited access to fresh food and a pharmacy. The store is seen by neighborhood groups as another major step in reviving the area that was once home to the Braves and the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Branch says it has now finalized a deal to buy the 4.4 acres of land from Carter, which is the main developer in the area. Among the changes in Summerhill in the last several years, several cross streets that were previously covered up by parking lots have been rebuilt.
Shannon says the shopping center is designed to fit into the neighborhood.
“It really serves the community not just from a vehicular traffic standpoint, but also pedestrian as well,” said Shannon. “If you’ve been down on Georgia Avenue where Carter redeveloped some of the older retail components along that street, on the weekend you can see it’s a very vibrant pedestrian environment.”
Groundbreaking is set for later this year with the shopping center set to open by the spring of 2023.
“That date was set based on supply shortages and difficulty with labor and materials,” said Shannon. “We lengthened our schedule several months based on what we’re currently seeing with other projects.”
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