With each passing week, another one of Atlanta’s shrinking roster of nicknamed Krogers is more a thing of the past. 

Like legendary Disco Kroger, Decatur’s Baby Kroger, and notorious Murder Kroger before it, the former Citi Center Kroger—aka, “Shitty Center Kroger”—at 3479 Memorial Drive has made way for redevelopment and fresh investment in a changing ITP landscape.

Citi Center Kroger, so nicknamed for allegedly low-grade produce and Memorial Drive’s formerly seedy reputation, terminated its lease and closed its anchor location at Belvedere Plaza in September, its home since the early 1990s in unincorporated Decatur. 

For Kroger, the closing was one of 60 nationwide and two in DeKalb County, with the other at 3855 Buford Highway in Brookhaven. 

Today, the last traces of Citi Center Kroger have been cleaved away as commercial real estate developer Hutton works to remake and backfill the former grocer space with new retail life. 

Redevelopment progress this week at the former Citi Center Kroger on Memorial Drive, where an investment totaling more than $24 million is underway. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

A Decide DeKalb Development Authority rendering that lends an idea what a refreshed Belvedere Plaza could look like.Decide DeKalb

Hutton is moving forward with a $24.3-million investment at the Belvedere Park shopping hub, with a goal of making strategic improvements to the Belvedere Plaza property and tenant spaces to attract four new national retailers.  

Hutton expects one new tenant to be another full-service grocery option for the Memorial Drive corridor, according to Decide DeKalb officials, who earlier this year 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. 

Renovations at Belvedere Plaza are scheduled to be finished by next summer. 

Scope of the fenced-off construction site and Belvedere Plaza, looking east. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Where barely a trace of the Citi past remains. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

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. 

Another Decide DeKalb-backed project with a grocery component—the Publix-anchored Candler Crossing in the Candler-McAfee neighborhood—broke ground in June, roughly three miles away.

Belvedere Plaza's 3479 Memorial Drive location in Belvedere Park, between East Lake Golf Club and Interstate 285. Google Maps

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