Struggling “Shops” to be renamed Buckhead Village, diversify tenants

By John Ruch

The struggling and ridiculed mixed-use complex called The Shops Buckhead Atlanta likely will be renamed Buckhead Village – matching the old nightclub neighborhood it largely replaced – and will add more affordable and community-friendly options, the CEO of its new owner said.

Matt Bronfman, principal and CEO of Jamestown, the real estate company that bought the complex last year, discussed the plans at February’s annual luncheon of the Buckhead Business Association, held at the 103 West event facility.

“Buckhead Village—and I am calling it Buckhead Village,” Bronfman said to loud applause as he discussed the complex. “People have gone back and forth on [the] name. I think the true name of the project should be Buckhead Village.”

Bronfman said he’d like to “wave a magic wand” and clear out many of the luxury-market tenants of the six-block complex, which runs along Peachtree Road between East Paces Ferry and Pharr roads. He said its future is more “accessible” retail with “more staples,” and will include a bookstore, a coffee shop, more greenspace and use of rooftop spaces.

“There were mistakes made in how it was done…[A] mistake in the past was thinking there was a need for, call it a Rodeo Drive in Buckhead,” Bronfman said. “…It’s not enough of a community center.”

Among the complex’s problems, he said, “is people don’t want to linger. And we want projects where people are comfortable just staying and hanging out.”

Jamestown’s track record with mega-redevelopments of Ponce City Market and the Westside Provisions District are the approaches he said he has in mind. The Buckhead vision won’t be identical, but it will have the themes of attracting foot traffic and the general public.

Now on its third owner-developer and fourth name in 12 years, the complex has had a tortuous development history and branding struggles. The $1.5 billion development in Buckhead Village sprang from a notorious stabbing during the 2000 Super Bowl, which crystalized local concerns about crime and energized a push to gentrify what at the time was one of the city’s biggest nightclub districts.

Originally conceived under the name Buckhead Avenues, which drew a legal challenge over a similarly named retail outlet, the project was renamed The Streets of Buckhead by developer Ben Carter shortly before construction began in 2007. In 2009, the project stalled, leaving a massive construction hole for over a year. Carter was forced out by investors in 2010. In 2011, developer OliverMcMillan took over the project and renamed it again to the widely mocked “Buckhead Atlanta.”

The first stores in the complex opened in 2014. The following year, OliverMcMillan changed the name yet again to The Shops Buckhead Atlanta, to still more ridicule. The retail mix in its roughly 60 storefronts was quickly criticized as too high-end.

Bronfman said Jamestown found that some retailers are doing well, but many were struggling and “close to giving up” at the time of last year’s sale.

In contrast to earlier top-down, from-the-boardroom development decisions, Jamestown last year held a town-hall meeting and conducted an online survey to get community input about the future of the complex.

Bronfman said that, unlike most developers, he likes places with stringent, project-delaying zoning regulations and “supply constraints” in development. He says that ensures community input – and also lets his company charge higher rents. “You’ve got to really work with the neighborhood” in such places, he said.

The local flavor was apparent in some of Bronfman’s comments.

Asked by an audience member about making the complex more family-friendly, he noted that the Buckhead Baseball league plays nearby in Frankie Allen Park. “Buckhead Baseball, they need to be our target shoppers, our target demographic, on a Saturday afternoon,” he said.

Ice cream, children’s clothing or “amusements and games” could be ways to attract families, he suggested.

Bronfman said many current tenants of the complex have favorable and long-term leases, so change will take time. “But the bones, the genes, are so good, we are confident it will be successful… We’re going to fix it, but it is definitely going to take more time than we would like,” he said.