Brand New Look

Flagship retail, restaurants, cinema planned for Colony Square

By Collin Kelley

Flagship retail, an upscale food market, chef-driven restaurants and a boutique movie theater are just some of the retail mix that North American Properties is seeking to bring to a revamped Colony Square by 2018.

NAP’s managing partner Mark Toro said during a recent Let’s Talk Midtown session that removing the roof over the shopping mall and reorienting the retail storefronts to Peachtree and 14th Streets will begin in about a year.

Toro said NAP is in talks with New York-based Eataly to open an outpost of its Italian market and curated, chef-driven restaurants including one by Chef Ford Fry. After Toro made those comments, Fry refuted the claim in an interview with Eater Atlanta that he was in talks to open a restaurant in Colony Square.

The movie theater would not only offer films, but high-end food and beverage in a dinner setting, similar to CineBistro in Brookhaven. Toro was not specific about which retailers NAP is in discussions with, but said flagship, large-scale “billboard” stores are being sought. Rumors persist that NAP is in discussions with Apple about bringing a store to Colony Square, but Toro denied this.

Toro said the “re-imagining” of Colony Square was inspired by the “free and easy cafe lifestyle” found in Madrid’s Plaza de Santa Ana, which is full of restaurants and tapas bars with a big outdoor dining scene. Toro said new art installations, like the giant Midtown letters fronting Peachtree and murals by local artists, have already begun to change Colony Square. Activities like Yoga in the Square, the soon-toopen bicycle parking area called Bike Haus, real-time transit screens, parking deck enhancements and reopening of the rooftop helipad are also transforming the complex, Toro said.