Metro Atlanta is hardly lacking suburban-style strip malls with vast parking lots as main features. The transformation of one such property in Roswell, now officially complete, has us wondering if it might serve as a template for other shopping-center sites, including intown locations. 

Atlanta-based real estate firm The Ardent Companies has sold its final retail parcel at Roswell’s mixed-use East Village, marking the developer’s exit from a project with more than 400 housing units that took roughly a half-decade to pull off. 

Ardent bought the ailing shopping center at 2600 Holcomb Bridge Road—formerly anchored by a Super Target, with Marshalls and Rack Room Shoes as other attractions—about five years ago and began drafting a redevelopment strategy. 

Relocating a Dollar Tree to a corner of the site, as one example of changes, allowed the property to be subdivided into distinct parcels for retail and residential uses, according to Ardent officials. 

In place of parking lots and big-box shells, East Village today counts a 335-unit apartment community, Averly East Village, and another section with 74 townhomes, Cardinal East Village. 

Prior to construction, the partially vacant East Village Shopping Center at 2640 Holcomb Bridge Road in Roswell. Google Maps

Overview of East Village's mix of retail and more than 400 housing units today, where a vacant Target had been located. Courtesy of The Ardent Companies

Retail offerings at East Village today include Zama Mexican, Panda Express, Platinum Bottle Shoppe, the Dollar Tree, and a Wellstar Primary Care clinic. 

According to Ardent reps, the redeveloped retail portion is 100 percent occupied today, reflecting the need for neighborhood shopping options in fast-growing sections of the metro. Proximity to healthcare providers, national retailers, and grocery stores also benefitted the property, per its developers. 

The 335-unit Averly East Village project was 70 percent leased and 55 percent occupied at the time of its grand opening in May last year, proving the need for multifamily housing in north OTP suburbs, according to its development team, ECI Group and joint venture partner Phoenix Capital. 

Courtesy of The Ardent Companies

East Village is located east of Ga. Highway 400 within Roswell city limits, about five miles southeast of Roswell’s historic downtown. The Gwinnett County line is just east of the site. 

“From the outset, our focus was on reinventing the site to meet today’s consumer preferences, delivering high-quality commercial space that complements the onsite residential and supports long-term tenant success,” said Ross Mehlman, Ardent’s managing director, in a sale announcement Thursday. The sale price and buyer weren’t specified. 

Find more East Village context and imagery in the gallery above. 

ITP Atlanta is no stranger to strip mall reinventions (the 32-acre Moreland & Custer project along Moreland Avenue jumps to mind), but where else could benefit from tactics deployed in Roswell? 

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