After hearing talk of a planned Whole Foods Market in south Forsyth County for several weeks, we now have confirmation that the grocer is in fact in talks for a new store in the area. The new Whole Foods would anchor a new project planned by Fuqua Development (dba Fuqua Acquisitions II, LLC) to the east of The Collection at Forsyth along Ronald Reagan Boulevard, behind an existing RaceTrac.
Ethan Underwood with Miles Hansford, LLC, the attorney representing Fuqua Development, told the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners (BOC) in a July 18 meeting that the developer is "in discussions to finally bring a Whole Foods to Forsyth County." The Amazon-owned grocer would presumably occupy the 35,500 square foot anchor space marked simply "grocery" on the developer's current site plan. (A Life Time athletic club was reportedly set to anchor a previous version of Fuqua's planned development.)
The new Whole Foods would be the first to open in metro Atlanta in more than five years. The next closest Whole Foods, which opened October 14, 2014, is about ten miles south at Avalon in Alpharetta. The Amazon-owned grocery store currently has twelve locations in Georgia: eleven in metro Atlanta plus one in Savannah. The grocer previously closed stores on Briarcliff Road near Emory University, in Marietta near the Big Chicken (Harry's Farmers Market), in Roswell (Harry's Farmers Market), in Duluth (Harry's Farmers Market) and in Augusta.
Fuqua previously developed Kennesaw Marketplace at the corner of Barrett Parkway and Cobb Parkway, which according to Whole Foods, served as the "relocation" of the Marietta Harry's. Whole Foods Market opened their new 46,000 square foot store at the center on October 6, 2017.
Whole Foods opened its 500th overall store April 5, 2019 on 14th Street in Midtown Atlanta. The 70,000 square foot store served as a "replacement" for the popular Briarcliffstore (the grocer's first store in the market), which closed in March 2019.
Landing a Whole Foods would be a significant coup for Forsyth County given a Trader Joe's is also planned for phase two of Halcyon nearby.
In addition to Whole Foods, Underwood confirmed that a new Whataburger is also planned as part of the project, which would provide the Texas-based chain a highly sought after location in the area. The company entered metro Atlanta in November 2022 with a store in Kennesaw and currently operates 20 locations in Georgia. In April 2023, a Whataburger opened at Lakeland Plaza, a little less than four miles away from the newly proposed location. The new Whataburger would presumably occupy the 2,900 square foot drive-thru building marked "restaurant" on the developer's site plan.
A separate freestanding drive-thru enabled building measures only 960 square feet and is likely to be a coffee shop like Tim Horton's, Dutch Bros., Scooters, 7 Brew, Starbucks, etc.
The planned Audi dealership would occupy about 8.8 acres and be operated by Baranco Automotive Group (J&G Baranco Holdings, LLC), a longtime automotive dealership family in Atlanta and owners of Mercedes-Benz of Buckhead.
A new Chipotle Mexican Grill is also expected to be part of the development, according to a real estate source with knowledge of the project's leasing efforts. The Newport Beach, California-based burrito joint recently surpassed more than 100 locations in Georgia.
A 2.76 acre property is also identified on the site plan as a 114-key hotel with another 4.5 acre parcel identified as climate-controlled self-storage or office.
In May, Fuqua brought the proposed Audi dealership to the BOC and in July presented their overall project. In both cases they sought landscape and parking variances which after some discussion and clarification were unanimously approved by the Board of Commissioners.
Fuqua Development, led by Jeff Fuqua, has developed several high profile projects in metro Atlanta over the past few years including Madison Yards in Atlanta, The Exchange at Gwinnett in Buford, and The Battery Atlanta at Truist Park.
Fuqua had sought to develop a more than 76 acre property about four miles south, on the west side of Peachtree Parkway at the intersection with Brookwood Road. After several years of planning, the project was "withdrawn without prejudice" in April 2020.
In other Forsyth grocery news, a Lidl store that was built but abandoned more than two years ago may finally open! The would-be Lidl at 4325 Bethelview Road is currently listed on the Lidl website as a "store under construction" with the company actively recruiting for an Assistant Store Manger, among other roles.
Are you excited about the planned Whole Foods Market in South Forsyth? Where do you do the majority of your grocery shopping? What other shops or restaurants would you like to see open in this development?
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