After Kroger exit, $24M investment aims to revive shopping center

A renovation project totaling more than $24 million will aim to breathe new life into an unincorporated Decatur shopping center that’s seen better days. 

The Decide DeKalb Development Authority Board of Directors last week unanimously approved a $3-million Urban Renewal Fund award to assist in reviving Belvedere Plaza, a 1950s strip center considered one of the area’s earliest malls. 

That funding, as sourced from the Avondale Mall/Columbia Drive Tax Allocation District, will be part of commercial real estate developer Hutton’s planned $24.3-million investment at the Belvedere Park shopping hub, as Decide DeKalb’s vice president of redevelopment and strategic initiatives Tiffany Wills recently relayed. 

The shopping center is located where Memorial Drive meets Columbia Drive, south of downtown Decatur and Avondale Estates. Key tenants at Belvedere Plaza today include Planet Fitness, Hibbett, Value Village, and Home Gallery furniture store. 

Hutton’s goal is to make strategic improvements to the Belvedere Plaza property and tenant spaces to attract four new national retailers, according to Wills. 

Three of those tenant spaces will backfill the former Kroger anchor space the grocer terminated its lease to vacate last fall. 

Hutton expects the fourth new tenant to be another full-service grocery option for the Memorial Drive corridor, according to Wills. 

Wills described the grant award as another example of a public-private partnership in DeKalb County that’s reinvesting in communities and improving “the quality of life of residents, businesses, and their customers.” 

The announcement comes after another Decide DeKalb-backed project with a grocery component—the Publix-anchored Candler Crossing in the Candler-McAfee neighborhood—broke ground earlier this month, about three miles away.

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• Belvedere Park news, discussion (Urbanize Atlanta)