Hard to believe, but October will mark a decade since the first phase of Avalon debuted in Alpharetta, serving up four crazy days and nights of celebrations to commemorate “the timeless art of living well” with fireworks, concerts, ceaseless fashion shows, $5,000/month OTP apartments, chef demos, and what a snickering, local real estate website once joked was “a fighter-jet flyover synchronized to ‘Proud to Be an American.’”
As a means of commemorating itself again, the grandaddy of North OTP mixed-use utopias is undergoing an “experiential facelift” to “monetize experiences” with a versatile new fun zone as its 10th birthday approaches.
Which is another way of saying they’re building a stage over by the movie theater.
We jest, but North American Properties says the addition of a raised, covered performance platform and large LED screen will apply lessons learned from the company’s other commercial hubs—including Colony Square’s remake in Midtown and Avenue East Cobb in Marietta—to continue shifting the paradigm at the South’s first “urbanburb.”
Expected look of a "Closing Time" encore. Courtesy of Avalon
Estimated to cost a million bucks, the 16-by-36-foot stage, replete with lighting and sound, and 180-square-foot screen will come together in Avalon’s The Plaza, in front of fountains and Regal Cinemas, where façade updates are also planned.
NAP officials say construction will begin in January as Avalon’s “Rockefeller-inspired ice rink” is trucked off after Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The full project is expected to be wrapped in two months, in time for the brouhaha that is Luck of Avalon, the 86-acre community’s local St. Patrick’s Day tradition.
Long finished in terms of its overall footprint, Avalon includes more than 500,000 square feet of retail, a full-service hotel, the 12-screen theater, a conference center, Class A offices, and hundreds of apartments and standalone homes. Its $1-billion in development covers 2.4 million square feet total.
NAP says Avalon hosts more than 200 events annually, attended by seven and ½ million visitors who hang out for a very specific average of 134 minutes.
Rendering depicting a North OTP Rager. Courtesy of Avalon
NAP started developing Avalon in 2012 and sold the upscale district four years later to PGIM for $500 million, but the Cincinnati-based firm was retained to oversee retail leasing efforts and management. In a recent announcement detailing the new stage and screen, NAP managing partner Tim Perry said Avalon has remained “the region’s crown jewel” by providing “places that offer a super experience.”
“Thousands of guests attend our Kentucky Derby party each year to watch the race on a temporary screen brought in to The Plaza,” added Nina DeCristofano Fender, Avalon’s marketing manager. “Having our own will present even more opportunities to bring the community together for bonding over shared experiences like sporting watch parties, movie nights, and everything in between.”
No mention, however, of synchronized fighter jets.
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