Anthropologie, Refuge Coffee planned for redo at former DeKalb mall site
North DeKalb Mall struggled with vacant stores for years, making it a location more ideal for filming scary movies than shopping.
But national and local retailers are set to return to the site of the former mall, which was mostly demolished to make way for a mixed-use district called Lulah Hills.
Project developer Edens said Wednesday it has landed a slate of new tenants for the 78-acre project that’s starting to rise at North Druid Hills Road and Lawrenceville Highway, a few miles from downtown Decatur.
The lineup includes a trendy clothing store, furniture showrooms, a popular coffeehouse, a pizzeria and a gelato shop.
It’s the latest in a series of retail announcements planned for the project, which aims to fill a gap between the shopping hubs in Ponce City Market and Buckhead, said Herbert Ames, managing director at Edens.
“It’s been a long time coming on this project, dating back to the early 2000s and a couple of developers ago,” Ames said in an interview, referring to previous efforts to redevelop North DeKalb Mall. “The excitement that’s building from a retail perspective is significant.”
Along with 1,800 residential units, Lulah Hills will include 320,000 square feet of retail space, roughly the size of the shops and food hall at Ponce City Market’s historic warehouse.
Like Ponce City Market, Lulah Hills has secured a new location of Anthropologie, a women’s clothing and home decor store. Anthropologie currently has a handful of metro Atlanta stores, sprinkled in affluent markets from Alpharetta to Buckhead.
Modern furniture stores Design Within Reach and Herman Miller are also set for Lulah Hills. Those mark the second Atlanta locations for both brands, which currently have a presence in West Midtown.
Refuge Coffee Co. is planning a new location at Lulah Hills. The nonprofit coffee company that supports immigrants and refugees will transform a former Meineke car repair shop along North Druid Hills Road, creating a gateway into the project, Ames said.
“There’s just an awesome opportunity to create a community place,” he said.
Other local concepts joining Lulah Hills are Honeysuckle Gelato and Firepit Pizza Tavern.
Honeysuckle Gelato started as a food truck, opened its first shop at Ponce City Market and has since expanded in metro Atlanta and North Carolina. Firepit Pizza Tavern has one location in Grant Park and an adjacent Latin restaurant called Birdcage.
Lastly, fitness studio Solidcore, Les Mains Nail Bar and dermatology clinic LaserAway are also set to open new locations.
The retailers will join a Publix grocery store announced for the project last year. An AMC Theatres and Marshalls remain at the property, two mall tenants spared from an extensive demolition that began in 2024. The AMC Theatres is being renovated and downsized from 16 to 11 screens.
Built in 1965, North DeKalb Mall was metro Atlanta’s first fully enclosed, air-conditioned mall. But the mall declined as consumer preferences shifted. By 2019, about half the mall’s shops were empty, and it became a movie set for productions such as “Fear Street” and “Zombieland: Double Tap.”
Edens purchased the decaying mall in 2021. The project was lifted by a $70 million property tax break from DeKalb County’s development authority, granted in 2023.
Crescent Communities recently started construction on a 303-unit apartment complex called Novel Lulah Hills. Empire Homes is gearing up to begin 92 townhomes.
Edens will soon start building the Publix grocery store and much of the single-level retail space that dots the project, Ames said. The first wave of retail is expected to open in the first quarter of 2027, with the initial residential units set to deliver later that year.
“We have a good bit more to announce that we’re working on right now,” Ames said of future retailers, hinting that some tenants would be new to metro Atlanta.
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