COVID-19 has certainly slowed commercial real estate projects and other businesses around the world. The owners of Northlake Mall and many other commercial real estate developers are still moving forward, albeit at what seems like a glacial pace. ToNeTo Atlanta spoke this past week with Tony Ruggeri, co-founder and partner at ATR Corinth, the current owners of Northlake Mall, about the project and coming updates. Ruggeri was quick to dispel rumors that his firm was either putting the project on the market or removing the retail component from the re-development.
Emory Healthcare, which in late 2019 signed a lease for 224,000 square feet at the mall, will occupy the former Sears store at the mall, with a workforce of at least 1,600. The Emory space is what ATR will initially work on, making infrastructure and other improvements to the space to complete their responsibilities before they turn it over to Emory's contractors for the space to be built out to suit their needs. As Ruggeri put it, "they do the book, we do the book cover." Emory will likely occupy the space in late 2021 or early 2022.
While the Sears space is spoken for, the fate of the rest of the mall and surrounding outlots is far less clear at this point. It's also worth noting that ATR now also controls the two-level, 180,000 square foot JCPenney space which was vacated in October when the struggling retailer closed its store. Pre-COVID, Ruggeri and his firm were deep in talks with several restaurant and retail operators, among other prospective tenants. Some of those talks have stopped altogether, while others have slowed as business owners re-evaluate their expenditures and expansion plans in the wake of the pandemic.
Ruggeri described restaurants as "least active," with so many either closing or on limited hours. Many restaurant operators who are still looking to expand are far more likely to seek out cheaper second generation restaurant space versus making the financial commitment of building out completely new restaurant space.
The area already has a strong evening and weekend population, but the completion of the initial office component is what will bring the weekday population needed to attract restaurants and other tenants. Ruggeri anticipates the project will eventually have "slightly more" office and "a little less" retail, but with the addition of more service-oriented uses.
Despite many companies either downsizing or implementing work from home programs, medical office space seems to be one of the safer bets when it comes to commercial real estate. Securing a significant lease with Emory may not be the "sexiest" use of mall space, but can you imagine if the developer had instead moved forward with a movie theater operator or something crazy like that?
What restaurant or retailer would you most like to see open at the reimagined Northlake Mall? What is currently your go-to Northlake area restaurant? When was the last time you shopped at a store in Northlake Mall other than Macy's?
Pleas share your thoughts below.