Another department store is shrinking its metro Atlanta presence with news coming Thursday that Belk plans to close its store at Town Center at Cobb in Kennesaw "at some point in February." The Belk, a legacy Parisian store, opened at the suburban mall in 2007 after it acquired the Parisian brand.
News of Belk's closure comes on the heels of upcoming closures of both Macy's and Kohl's stores, including local stores in Duluth.
Following the Belk closure, Town Center will be anchored by JCPenney and both Macy's and Macy's Furniture Gallery stores. Sears, one of the mall's original tenants from its 1986 opening, closed in 2020.
Once owned by mega-mall operator Simon, Town Center at Cobb was purchased in 2023 by Kohan Retail Investments, a company known for buying struggling malls.
Belk re-entered the metro Atlanta market in a major way with the 2006 purchase of Birmingham-based Parisian from then owner Saks Inc. In 2007, Belk re-branded many of the Parisian stores with the Belk brand.
In metro Atlanta, these conversions included former Parisian stores at Phipps Plaza in Buckhead, Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth, and Town Center at Cobb in Kennesaw. Parisian also had a presence at North Point Mall in Alpharetta, but instead of occupying the former Parisian space, Belk chose to reopen in the previous Lord & Taylor location in 2007, with a new 12 screen AMC Theatres opening in place of the former Parisian pad. Belk, however, exited the mall in September 2009 and Von Maur opened in the space in November 2011.
Belk has over the years closed all of the other metro Atlanta legacy Parisian stores including Gwinnett Place (2013) and Phipps Plaza (2018)
Parisian also had stores at The Mall at Stonecrest in Lithonia and Northlake Mall in Tucker, but those were not reopened as Belk and instead became Kohl's which were subsequently closed in 2016.
Charlotte-based Belk was acquired for $3 billion by New York private equity firm Sycamore Partners in late 2015. This past July, the company completed a "value-maximizing deleveraging transaction," that saw Sycamore replaced by the retailer's first and second lien lenders. "Through the transaction, certain of Belk’s existing lenders, including funds associated with global investment firm KKR and Hein Park, will take controlling interest in the business from Sycamore," according to a report by industry publication Chain Store Age.
Established in Monroe, North Carolina in 1888, Belk today spans 16 primarily southeastern states with nearly 300 stores. The company's metro Atlanta presence includes stores at The Forum Peachtree Corners in Peachtree Corners, Mall of Georgia in Buford, Snellville Pavilion in Snellville and Village Green in West Cobb. The company also operates one "Outlet Store" (another former Parisian) at Arbor Place Mall in Douglasville.
What is your fondest memory of Town Center at Cobb? What would you like to see happen to Town Center at Cobb? What is your favorite traditional department store?
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