Serpentine bikeways. A roaring concert venue. A mini forest of high-rises. An “ice plex.” An ornate carousel plaza. A BRT connection. Shops galore. And a massive new arena bearing resemblance to a Corten-steel hockey puck. 

All of that and more is vividly depicted in new visuals released today for Ponce City Market developer Jamestown’s planned NHL-anchored overhaul of Alpharetta’s struggling North Point Mall.  

Jamestown officials tell Urbanize Atlanta just one vote remains—a full Alpharetta City Council decision scheduled for Aug. 24—before the mall development receives final approval needed for entitlements. 

Alpharetta’s planning commission last week approved Jamestown’s proposal 4-3, with dissenters wishing aloud the full mixed-use district was contingent on an NHL franchise being awarded to Alpharetta. As it stands now, nearly 1,400 for-rent multifamily units planned for the district are hinging on the pro hockey league’s decision, but the rest of the development could be approved to move forward, to include aspects such as 700 total hotel rooms, a large conference center and movie theater, and a 4,000-seat music hall, roughly double the size of Atlanta’s The Eastern. 

Renderings also depict a MARTA Bus Rapid Transit connection on Ga. Highway 400 with pedestrian bridge access, large greenspaces, and sections of today’s mall intact.

Plans for a 2,000-seat communal hockey rink. Courtesy of Jamestown

Courtesy of Jamestown

The nearly 100-acre district would be designed to lure in NHL hockey fans and other regional visitors, including Alpharetta residents and workers, according to Jamestown—best known in Atlanta as Ponce City Market and Westside Provision District’s developer and Buckhead Village’s owner—and New York Life, the mall’s owner. 

Jamestown officials revealed their involvement in the arena-centric North Point Mall redevelopment in February. 

No timeline for delivery of any aspect has been specified, pending city approvals. 

What new Jamestown renderings depict as a MARTA Bus Rapid Transit connection and pedestrian bridge leading over Ga. Highway 400 to the North Point Mall redevelopment.Courtesy of Jamestown

Courtesy of Jamestown

The Alpharetta initiative is competing with a $3-billion concept that gained steam last year about six miles up Ga. Highway 400 in fast-growing Forsyth County. 

The Gathering at South Forsyth—first proposed in 2023—has made key hires and scored government approvals despite requiring several hundred million dollars in public financing to be feasible. The concept by Vernon Krause—a car dealership entrepreneur and head of Krause Sports and Entertainment, turned potential developer—would take shape on 100 acres he owns along the same highway. 

Like Jamestown's proposal, The Gathering could also rival Braves-anchored The Battery Atlanta in Cobb County, but all of it—including $350 million in tax incentives tentatively approved by the Forsyth County Commission—hinges on the NHL deciding to award metro Atlanta its third pro hockey franchise. NHL brass has given no indication when they’ll decide on expansion, but NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has said Atlanta’s past two failures to keep NHL franchises here won’t count against the region. (Atlanta’s Flames relocated to Calgary in 1980, and following a dozen years in downtown Atlanta, the Thrashers decamped to Winnipeg in 2011.) 

As NHL observers have noted, metro Atlanta’s population has swollen by more than 1.5 million people since the Thrashers skedaddled to Canada. That makes it the second largest U.S. market without a pro hockey team right now, following only Houston.

Find a bounty of new renderings and fly-through screen-captures for Jamestown’s North Point Mall proposal in the gallery above. And let’s ask ourselves: Should the NHL pick this, the Forsyth concept, or something else if/when it returns to metro Atlanta? 

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