Whole Foods to open in East Cobb in 2011

By Rachel Tobin Ramos

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Merchants Walk, a 33-year-old commercial node in East Cobb County, is getting a major face lift and a new Whole Foods Market.

The 350,000- square-foot power center is undergoing about $20 million in renovations to make it easier to walk and navigate, said Lyle Darnall, managing director of Edens & Avant, the development firm.

This kind of construction has become rare given the economic downturn. Many new retail centers are struggling to find tenants. And many tenants are angling for rent concessions.

Atlanta’s retail vacancy rate rose to 10.7 percent in the third quarter, rising steadily from 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to CoStar Group, a real estate information firm.

But Merchants Walk is in a commercial area surrounded by high-wealth households, Darnall said. He noted that the average household income in the East Cobb trade area is $165,000.

There's also fierce competition for that household dollar from grocery chains: Nearby are a Trader Joe's, Fresh Market, Publix and Kroger.

Alan Wexler of Databank, a commercial real estate information service in Atlanta, said the reason for the construction at Merchants Walk is the battle for the high-end customer that lives nearby.

"It's a prime location," Wexler said. "That population is going to be recovering faster than a lower income area, and that's what Whole Foods is betting on."

A spokeswoman for Whole Foods confirmed the company is opening a store in Merchants Walk.

Edens & Avant, based in Columbia, S.C., bought Merchants Walk in 2000. The center was last redeveloped in the 1990s. Other tenants include Old Navy, Kohl's, Stein Mart, PetSmart and a movie theater.

The firm was in talks with Whole Foods for about three years, Darnall said, and a lease with the high-end grocer was signed last fall. The store will be about 45,000 square feet and is slated to open in 2011, he said.

In other changes at Merchants Walk, a Wachovia bank branch and Hallmark store will move to new locations and two new restaurant spaces will be built. A public library will move to Parkaire, a retail center less than 2 miles away.

Some of the hilly retail center also is being flattened for better visibility from the busy intersection of Roswell and Johnson Ferry roads nearby, Darnall said.

Darnall believes that when work is completed on the center, revenues could top $100 million annually.

A Facebook fan page for Merchants Walk has 255 "friends." The company has posted renderings of the development, updates on construction and merchant coupons on the site.