German discount grocer Lidl is ramping up its delayed metro Atlanta expansion with plans for several new stores. Renovation plans reviewed by ToNeTo Atlanta indicate that Lidl plans to open new stores in Brookhaven, Dunwoody and Peachtree Corners next year. The stores, located at 2480 Briarcliff Road, 2480 Mount Vernon Road and 5270 Peachtree Parkway, would all open in place of former grocery stores.
The former Earth Fare in Peachtree Corners
In Brookhaven, Lidl plans to open in the onetime Loehmann’s turned The Fresh Market, in Dunwoody, Lidl plans to open in a onetime Harris Teeter turned Sprouts Farmers Market while in Peachtree Corners they plan to open in the Bruno’s turned Earth Fare.
The Fresh Market closed their store at Brighten Park last summer after about three years in business. The company at the same time closed a store on Scenic Highway in Snellville which is reportedly still available. The Brighten Park store is just under 25,000 square feet, according to a siteplan from property owner Regency Centers.
Earth Fare closed their Peachtree Corners store [as well as their Emory Point location] last March after less than three years in business. Sprouts Farmers Market closed its Dunwoody store this past December after about four and a half years in business. Kroger, which purchased several Harris Teeter stores in Atlanta when the grocer exited the market in 2001, previously controlled the lease at Mount Vernon but no longer does.
The Dunwoody store, listed on the Mount Vernon shopping center’s website as being just under 37,000 square feet, is actually closer to 34,000 square feet, due to a 2018 sublease to pet food store Hollywood Feed.
The Peachtree Corners store is considerably smaller, a mere 23,500 square feet, according to marketing materials from SRS Real Estate Partners who was handling the marketing of the space on behalf of Earth Fare.
ToNeTo Atlanta first reported August 2 that Emory University has leased the former Earth Fare at Emory Point for a new “Innovation Hub,” the exact features of which the university has yet to announce.
Lidl, which originally had strict plans to build freestanding, 36,000 square foot stores, has adopted a new, more nimble strategy in recent months . The grocer seems far more willing now to adapt to available real estate and take on existing spaces in markets it wishes to penetrate.
Interestingly, Lidl rival Aldi had several years ago expressed interest in the now former Earth Fare space but backed out over “demographic concerns.” That said, Aldi did eventually open a store in the area in early 2017, when it took a roughly 17,400 square foot space in Peachtree Corners Marketplace on Peachtree Parkway, about two miles away. Earlier this May, Aldi also closed a store on Jimmy Carter Boulevard in Norcross, their first closure in the state.
Aldi, which entered America in 1976 and Georgia around 2002, currently has more than 50 stores in metro Atlanta and more than 1,600 nationwide.
The grocer said in 2015 that it planned to have 50 stores open in Georgia by 2018.
Earlier this year, Lidl opened stores in Snellville, Marietta/Austell and Mableton, which joined the grocer’s original Georgia store in Augusta, which opened in 2017. After a slower than expected start, however, the company significantly reduced their pipeline, delaying some stores indefinitely and cancelling others entirely.
In July, the Marietta City Council approved a new Lidl at 670 Whitlock Avenue in Marietta. The new store, which would replace a vacant onetime A&P store, would also be 29,000 square feet and could open in 2020. A Lidl store could also come to Duluth as part of Watkins Real Estate Group’s planned Marketplace Village project along Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, adjacent to where Fuqua Development built their Sprouts Farmers Market-anchored Sugarloaf Marketplace in 2016. The size and status of the potential Lidl at the Watkins project is unclear and attempts to get updates from the developer and grocer were unsuccessful.
ToNeTo Atlanta reported August 7 that previously tabled stores at 3530 Sugarloaf Parkway in Lawrenceville in Gwinnett County and 2985 Peachtree Parkway in Suwanee in Forsyth County are now moving forward, according to local filings. That said, they are moving forward smaller than originally proposed, with each expected to be about 29,000 square feet, down from the originally proposed 36,000 square feet, the size of other existing stores in Georgia. Plans for others, including those proposed in Sandy Springs (2) and Rome, have been cancelled altogether.
In September, ToNeTo Atlanta reported that Lidl is also planning to open a new store in Roswell in place of an aging shopping center on Holcomb Bridge Road. The center, The Crossings at Roswell, is set on roughly four acres at the intersection of Holcomb Bridge and Old Roswell Roads, and was built in 1984 according to real estate site LoopNet. Plans call for a complete demolition of the roughly 40,000 square foot center and for the new Lidl to be about 29,000 square feet, according to documents submitted to the City of Roswell.
ToNeTo Atlanta is constantly in touch with various real estate sources and industry observers. Rumors of the Brookhaven, Dunwoody and Peachtree Corners Lidl stores were first brought to us early this year but became more serious recently. That said, one other store mentioned then, and referenced by us here, is also getting closer to fruition.
Multiple well placed sources this week told ToNeTo Atlanta that Lidl is “close” to getting a deal done at the current The Fresh Market in Woodlawn Square shopping center in East Cobb. The Woodlawn Square space is just shy of 22,000 square feet, making it the smallest store the grocer is pursuing.
Representatives from , Regency Centers, who own Brighten Park, Branch Properties who own Mount Vernon, SRS Real Estate Partners who are marking the Earth Fare in Peachtree Corners and Retail Planning Corporation, who own Woodlawn Square, all declined comment citing confidentiality and non disclosure agreements.
Many industry observers fear a potentially imminent bankruptcy filing by The Fresh Market and see the grocer’s attempts to assign their leases as a way for the company to reduce its obligations. A message left with Lidl’s local real estate manager went unresponded.
Have you been to a Lidl store? Are you excited about the planned openings of so many more Lidl stores? What is one grocery product that you will drive a little extra to buy?