Medley opens in Johns Creek, marking new era for north Fulton city
Mark Toro is a stickler for deadlines.
After his real estate firm acquired an aging State Farm campus in Johns Creek in 2024, he said a reimagined development would open on Oct. 29, 2026, at 10 a.m. Restaurants, residences and retail would spring up in its place, turning a lifeless office park into a destination for the community.
Two years later, this vision has materialized, down to the minute. The first phase of the $560 million Medley at Johns Creek project opens Thursday, a first-of-its-kind project for the North Atlanta suburb that will anchor its new downtown.
Included in this first phase: restaurants, including the Georgia debut of Chattanooga restaurant Stir and another outpost of Buford Highway staple Northern China Eatery; as well as retail space, anchored by a Trader Joe’s that opened in June.
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There’s plenty of outdoor space to gather, including a 25,000-square-foot plaza with a stage, and a bar fashioned around an oak tree preserved from the previous development. An apartment community dubbed Prelude at Medley has also debuted.
And though Toro Development Co. tore down 350,000 square feet of vacant suburban office space to make way for Medley, the firm didn’t do away with offices entirely. A new four-story office building has been leased entirely, with pharmaceuticals and animal health giant Boehringer Ingelheim taking about half the square footage. This is a rare feat for what real estate developers call a “spec” office project, which involves starting construction without specific tenants on board.
“What was obsolete real estate product is now (this),” Toro said during an early tour of the project last week. “This is happening across America. We’re being offered opportunities to reimagine dead suburban office parks because that real estate product is no longer viable.”
This isn’t Toro’s first time at the rodeo. When he was with North American Properties, Toro led the development of Avalon in Alpharetta and the redo of Colony Square in Midtown. Avalon rose on the site of a proposed high-rise project that failed to launch, and Colony Square was reimagined into a live-work-play hub Toro likened to Midtown’s “living room.”
In fact, the prior owners of the State Farm office campus contacted Toro because they were aware of his work at Avalon.
In transforming the Johns Creek site, Toro wanted to out-Avalon Avalon, which opened more than a decade ago. He now lives at the Alpharetta development, having moved from Midtown a few years ago. He doesn’t plan on moving to Johns Creek, he said, joking that his wife has too many friends at Avalon.
There are key differences between the two projects. Avalon was the first-of-its-kind in the metro area, and Toro said North American had a harder time with the entitlements process with the city because they didn’t quite understand mixed-use. With Medley, Johns Creek already had an understanding of Avalon. There was a proof of concept.
Medley is also half the size of Avalon, and much less heavy in its retail and office offerings. Though Toro said he wishes his firm would have built more office at Medley, given the demand.
Johns Creek is also culturally diverse. About 46% of the suburb’s population is non-white, with about 33% identifying as Asian and 9% as Black, according to data provided by Johns Creek. About 40% of households speak a language other than English, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“That’s where the name Medley came from,” Toro said.
Toro said he wanted to capture the diversity of the suburb in its restaurant offerings and looked for the “best player in each one of their cuisines.” Among the lineup: Tabla, an Indian restaurant from restaurateur Sandeep Kothary with a location in Midtown, and Lily Sushi, a concept coming from Alpharetta.
Additional development is set to come to the 43-acre property in the coming years. A 150-guest room boutique hotel managed by Mainsail Lodging & Development, known for Midtown’s Epicurean Atlanta hotel, is expected to open in 2028. Townhomes will open next year. Additional restaurants and retail tenants will occupy space.
Each component will converge with Johns Creek’s vision of building a center of gravity that will weave together housing, restaurants, retail and offices through new public pathways and parks.
“It was serendipitous that we showed up when we did because they had just approved (that vision),” Toro said. “They’re investing heavily in creating a place, and this became the nucleus for that place.”