[SPECIAL] A Look at the Past, Present and Future of North DeKalb Mall (2024)

Nearly three years after completing their purchase of North DeKalb Mall, real estate firm EDENS will June 26 host a ceremonial demolition event [despite the fact that demolition started June 24] to mark the start of their planned decade long redevelopment plan.

With nearly all of the recent reports focusing solely on the future of the project, we here at ToNeTo Atlanta, want to take a walk down memory lane and look at the mall's past, too. (Interestingly, a site plan for Lulah Hills shows a strange "Mysterious Way" within the project which seems like a missed opportunity to call it Memory Lane.)

ToNeTo Atlanta founder Eli Zandman grew up not far from North DeKalb Mall and always looked forward to visits to the mall and its many restaurant, retail, and entertainment options.

North DeKalb Center, as the mall was first known, opened in 1965 with fifty-five stores including Rich's department store. The mall was heralded as "the city's first weatherproof mall" in articles ahead of its opening. The mall debuted one year after Columbia Mall (aka Avondale Mall) opened along Memorial Drive near Avondale Estates, about seven miles away. Columbia Mall suffered from some of the same demographic and economic changes that later plagued North DeKalb but their fate was sealed far sooner.

Columbia Mall originally had both a Davison's (Macy's) and Sears. The mall, like North DeKalb, saw the addition of a movie theater long after the mall was built. Zandman recalls fondly seeing Mighty Ducks 3 at Avondale Mall Cinema 16. After years of neglect and store closures, the mall closed in 2001, was demolished in 2007, and was replaced by a Walmart Supercenter in 2008.

North DeKalb Mall had everything a kid in the 90s could want: Mark's Hallmark for Beanie Babies, Sav-On Plants for "rare" [overpriced] Beanie Babies, RadioShack to look at cool gadgets like the Walkman you wanted, Bath & Body Works for a gift for the cute girl you liked, Challenges for arcade games and your first introduction to Mortal Kombat, Electronics Boutique for games for your Nintendo 64, Waldenbooks for books like Goosebumps and Animorphs, KB Toys for toys and model cars, Camelot Music (later FYE) for the Brittney Spears album "Baby One More Time," Foot Locker where Zandman purchased a Nike hat he still wears today, Everything's a Dollar to buy dumb stuff, Stein Mart to ignore and wonder who shopped there, Rich's (Macy's) to get your first Tommy Hilfiger rugby, Mervyn's (later Uptons) for "cool" school clothes, Gap for "basic" school clothes, Rack Room Shoes when your mom was still dressing you (and paying for your shoes), Woolworth's to waste allowance money, Gorin's Homemade Cafe for ice cream, duh, Wolf Camera to develop the photos you'd taken on your camera - there was little the mall did not have.

Although we were not around for the mall's original tenants, research and readers tell us of favorites like Colonial Stores (later Big Star) H. Stockton, Zachry, Regenstein's (women's & children's apparel), Dipper Dan's Ice Cream, North DeKalb Theatre (before and in a separate space than today's AMC) Davis Brothers Cafeteria, C & C Rexall Drugs and F.W. Woolworth's Restaurant, among other early tenants.

North DeKalb Center tenant list circa 1970

For a few years the mall was also home to Phar-Mor, a large format discount drug store that Walmart founder Sam Walton once famously said was the competitor he feared most. Phar-Mor occupied anchor space previously home to Lechmere, a Massachusetts-based retail chain. Phar-Mor filed for bankruptcy first in 1992 before closing several stores, including the North DeKalb Mall store. The company filed for bankruptcy for a second and final time in 2001. AMC North DeKalb 16 opened in the former Phar-Mor on December 13, 1996.

Former Phar-Mor loading docks

The mall food court was also previously home to Chick-fil-A, Sbarro, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Subway, and other mall mainstays. Perfect Pretzel and Freshens each occupied separate space in and around the food court, too.

Former Chick-fil-A

Earlier in its life, the mall also had Spinnaker's, a seafood restaurant, and Bonanza Steakhouse, a once ubiquitouscasual dining destination, among other restaurants.

Former Applebee's

Sit down restaurants such as Buffalo's Cafe, Johnny Rockets, and Applebee's opened in the mall in the late 90s and early 2000s but Buffalo's and Johnny Rockets closed first, followed by Applebee's in 2013. Adjacent to the food court, the mall was also home to the only Dippin' Dots walk-in shop we had ever seen. The shop had a cosmic theme and was definitely different from your typical ice cream shop but it didn't last long.

One of the last locations of Little Bucks to ever open debuted in the mall around 2004 in the Burlington wing. The store, bankrolled by several high-profile Atlantans, launched in 2002 and went bankrupt in early 2005. The store's premise was simple, sell everything, even $1 Georgia Lottery Tickets, for just 99 cents. The idea was great for customers where opening promotions includednine televisions, nine Game-Boys, and nine Razor scooters each for 99 cents. The company also lost a penny on each lottery ticket sold. Ultimately the company filed for bankruptcy and went away entirely. Notable investors in the business included founder I. J. Rosenberg, a sportswriter-turned-stockbroker-turned-entrepreneur, Michael J. Coles, co-founder of Great American Cookie Co., Jay Davis, Chairman & CEO of National Distributing Company, and Ronald M. Brill, co-founder of The Home Depot, among others.

The mall had been trending downward for more than a decade with closures of stores like The Athlete's Foot, Payless ShoeSource, Stein Mart, FYE, The Children's Place and Mattress Firm, but chain-store closures started to accelerate in 2016when Macy's closed their longstanding store and adjacent auto center at the mall - occupying the Rich's space - making it the longest-running, continuously operating tenant in the mall to close. ROSS Dress For Less (in a converted Old Navy) relocated to the redeveloped Suburban Plaza, and Rack Room Shoes closed, too.

Play It Again Sports fled the mall in 2017, reopening in nearby North Decatur Plaza while GNC and Foot locker closed entirely. Late 2017 also brought the closures of Wendy's and Bath & Body Works. Dollar Tree and The United States Post Office, both located on the exterior of the mall near Marshalls, closed, too, consolidating operations with other nearby locations. Burlington (in the former Uptons/Mervyn's) left the mall in 2021 when they opened a new store at Briarcliff Village near Northlake Mall.

Challenges, a North DeKalb mainstay for decades, had in more recent years adopted the "Challenges Comics & Games" branding to more accurately reflect their move from arcade games to other games like Magic The Gathering, Warhammer, Dungeons & Dragons, Heroclix as well as comic books, tabletop games, and board games. Challenges relocated to nearby Northlake Mall this past June.

In recent years, the mall has been a popular filming location with movies and shows including Netflix's “Cobra Kai,” “The Mule” starring Clint Eastwood, “MacGyver” and “Zombieland: Double Tap .” The final season of the hit Netflix show "Ozark" also shot in the mall with a significant meeting immediately identifiable (to us, at least) as within the former Rich's (Macy's) wing of the mall.

Cobra Kai

Cobra Kai

Several 90s storefronts were recreated in 2019 for the filming of R.L. Stine's "Fear Street Part 1: 1994," a Netflix horror movie that involves, among other things, a "mall massacre."ToNeTo Atlantacovered preparations for the productionin April 2019which included photos of several returning stores from the mall's heyday like Casual Corner and RadioShack, among others. A Nickelodeon and Paramount+ film "A Loud House Christmas" was filmed at the mall in 2021.

B. Dalton Bookseller from Fear Street Part 1: 1994

Tick Tock Tavern from Fear Street Part 1: 1994

Fear Street Part 1: 1994

Ozark

The mall redevelopment project, Lulah Hills, is expected to include a mix of single-family and multifamily residential, and retail and hotel space, among other uses.

"Our 73-acre mixed-use shopping destination in Atlanta's North DeKalb County is the evolution of community, designed to inspire all who visit. Encompassing 2.5 million square feet—including 320,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 1,700 for-rent multifamily units, 100 townhomes and a PATH Foundation greenway trail connecting Lulah Hills to Emory University."

Columbia, South Carolina-based EDENS acquired the roughly 73 acre property from West Palm Beach-based Sterling Organization ina September 2021 transactionvalued at $43 million. EDENS is the latest of several developers to have purchased the property over the past twenty years or so hoping to redevelop it but is the first to actually get to demolition day.

A 2018 effort -Decatur Landing- was to be anchored by a Costco store, but after county and community unhappiness over elements of the developer's plans, was abandoned.

The mall is currently home to just two tenants: AMC North DeKalb Mall 16 and Marshalls (in a converted Rhodes Furniture). A freestanding Golden Corral is also still in operation in an outparcel of the mall along Lawrenceville Highway. An EDENS released site plan suggests that the two mall tenants - likely protected by existing leases - are not going anywhere...for now. It's unclear if both will remain in the project long-term with an EDENS representative telling ToNeTo Atlantarecently that "answers to many of these questions" will come via a press kit after this week's demolition ceremony.

The board of the Decide DeKalb Development Authority voted unanimously this past December to grant $70 million in tax reimbursem*nts over a 15 year period to EDENS as an incentive for the company’s redevelopment of North DeKalb Mall.

The company indicated this past fall that the first retail spaces should be open in 2025, with the first mixed-use buildings expected to open in 2026. Additional retail and residential space will be added in stages through about 2033. The overall development represents a nearly $1 billion investment.

EDENS currently owns eight shopping centers in metro Atlanta including both Toco Hills Promenade and Toco Hills Shopping Center at Toco Hills, as well as several properties in Buckhead. Since its acquisition, EDENS has added several new local and national businesses toToco Hillsincluding Westside Market, Spiller Park Coffee, Chopt, Club Pilates, Flying Biscuit Café, Yumbii, Ulta Beauty, Conte's Bike Shop, and most recently, Stilla Del Toro, a local Spanish tapas restaurant.

Patience, something it seems Sterling, and Hendon before it ran out of, is something EDENS has been shown to have. Moores Mill, a Publix-anchored center that EDENS developed at Moores Mill Road on Atlanta's "Upper Westside," opened in May 2017 after more than ten years of setbacks. EDENS officially sold Moores Mill to InvenTrust Properties Corp. this past April for $28 million.

EDENS has not yet named any specific new tenants for Lulah Hills but real estate sources have told ToNeTo Atlanta for months that Publix plans to relocate its store from Shamrock Plaza to the new development .

In addition to the core mall property, EDENS wants to also include two outparcels in the overall redevelopment, according to an email sent to neighbors. The developer wants to include - and have rezoned from C-1 to MU-4 - 2052 Lawrenceville Highway and 3861 North Druid Hills Road. EDENS presented its plans June 24 via a virtual Zoom call. The roughly 1.1 acre Lawrenceville Highway property, once home to a full-service Bank of America (originally Citizens & Southern National Bank) branch, currently functions only as a drive-thru ATM for the bank. The approximately .4 acre North Druid Hills parcel was previously a Meineke car care center but has been vacant for some time.

DeKalb County tax records do not yet reflect a sale of the Bank of America property but do indicate that an affiliate of EDENS paid $1.25M for the Meineke site this past July.

A triple drive-thru Chick-fil-A at 3905 North Druid Hills Road in front of the mall, closed as of June 15, and will reportedly soon be demolished but it remains unclear what will become of that property. A new Chick-fil-A - that has not three drive-thru lanes but zero - opened June 20 on the site of a former Pier 1 [Imports] at 3795 North Druid Hills Road.

Costco, which has been linked to the North DeKalb property at least twice over the past two decades, appears out of contention for space in Lulah Hills, according to both sources close to the project and the lack of availability on publicized site plans.

Although not here to read it himself, we can't help but think of how much our longtime friend, fan, and mentor Sherrod "Pete" Patterson would enjoy reading, commenting on, and reminiscing about this post. Patterson, longtime President of the nearby Leafmore-Creek Park Hills Civic Association, passed away in August 2021 but is forever remembered and treasured as one ofToNeTo Atlanta's biggest champions.

Thank you to tipsters, readers, photographers and of course our editor, Shelley, for your assistance in this special post.

Looking for more North DeKalb Mall history? Check out our friends at Underground Retail who earlier this year published a great video on the mall!

What is your fondest memory of North DeKalb Mall? What is your favorite restaurant or retailer from North DeKalb that no longer exists? What restaurant or retailer would you like to see join Lulah Hills?

Please share your thoughts below.