Emory Point Adds Four More Retailers
Decatur Metro | March 2, 2012From a Emory Point press release…
Cousins Properties has secured the first U.S. lease for La Tagliatella, a European pasta and pizza restaurant. Founded in Madrid in 2001, La Tagliatella has more than 110 restaurants in Spain and France and chose Atlanta as the first American city to introduce its flavors. Atlanta-based Tin Lizzy’s and Fresh To Order also have signed on to the property to round out the wide variety of eating choices. Additionally, Emory Point will get the fourth location for Jazmin Spa, which has a variety of treatment services.
This development is quickly becoming a reality. I can’t believe how fast those buildings are going up over on Clifton Road!
Those Emory kids will make that Tin Lizzy’s nasty. Vomicks in the bathroom and sticky beer encrusted floors.
If only. The truth is that Emory just cannot support a bar. See Dooley’s (twice), Jagger’s (then Park Bench), Taco Mac, L’il Dinos, PJ Haley’s, etc… Stupid Emory kids driving to Buckhead or the Highlands when they’re not drinking at their frat houses!
Aren’t most of the undergrads too young to be drinking legally in a local bar anyway? I think college bars went out with the age 18 legal drinking age.
Ha! You’re so funny, AHID! Or seriously, have you ever been to Athens?
I am a very gullible person.
Maybe just as “gullible” as the “bouncers” at Maggie’s
Athens? Very gullible person’? Oh what a perfect day for a road trip:
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2012-03-02/opponents-rally-against-walmart-today
Ya know, as silly as I think most of the Suburban Plaza protesters are, I understand the opposition to the Athens development. Suburban Plaza was built for, and is zoned for, exactly what Walmart wants to build. The Athens plan, on the other hand, is right downtown. The equivalent in Decatur would be a huge mixed-use development with a 100,000 square foot anchor tenant right about where St. Thomas More is.
Alas, looks like we missed the chance to join that protest. However, I actually will be making a road trip there tomorrow for two trivia games at Blind Pig and Amici’s!
The proposed Athens project definitely has some challenges– major traffic bottleneck (and neighborhood streets impact) and blending it better with the Greenway. Protect Downtown Athens, the thoughtful and solutions oriented group, seems to have done everything right to position themselves for meaningful discussions with Selig. Hopefully, they’ll end up bringing good changes to the plans. However…
There’s not a chance in hell that People for a Better Athens will ever play a role in anything. Their leaders, Russell Edwards and Melissa Link, are incapable of presenting their anti Walmart stance without making stuff up. Unfortunately, Good Growth Dekalb has chosen to align with this group. So far, neither PFABA or GGD has offered up any specifics on which local businesses will be harmed, and both ignore Walmart’s positive initiatives in recent years while bombarding us with old studies that often aren’t relevant to what’s being proposed. Why are GGD and PFABA so dead set against even considering the merits of these projects? Hatin’ on Walmart is so passe.
(J_T- Are you a professional trivia hustler or somethin’? Have fun in my hometown! :0)
Sidetracking for a moment on the topic of Trivia: What’s the world of Trivia like these days? I used to play in the pre-smartphone/iPad/iTouch era where the DJs sometimes had to remind folks “No newspapers or reference books allowed” but otherwise the atmosphere was pretty honest. I’ve heard that smartphones and cheating are now ubiquitous at Trivia nights. Is there anywhere nearby to play an honest game of Trivia anymore? Anywhere without alcohol so kids can participate too?
IMHO, there is only one local trivia game or company worth playing. It’s called Full Contact Trivia – http://fullcontacttrivia.wordpress.com/ – the locations convenient to Decatur are Brewhouse Avondale (Monday) and Brewhouse Little 5 Points (Wednesday). I’m not sure about the kid policy since I don’t have any but I believe that the Little 5 Brewhouse is either 18+ or 21+. I think, but am not sure, that they would be welcome at the Avondale location.
I, too, played in the pre-tech days when people didn’t have even dumb phones. Back in those olden days of the mid to late 90’s, I used to play with a group of grad school friends at Jaggers and at Smith’s Olde Bar. That was the early days of the now monolithic Team Trivia, when the hosts had at least some autonomy and the good ones made the games worth playing. The last few times I’ve been dragged to a Team Trivia game, I found the problem to be a lot less about smart phones and a lot more about the dumb questions they asked. It’s basically 4 rounds of ridiculously easy questions with every team having a chance to win on the final question, which in turn comes down to putting four celebrities in age order or something idiotic like that.
Bobby’s Full Contact Trivia is different. The questions test your actual knowledge with very little pop culture fluff. The best part is that, because there is such a strong, loyal following, the games pretty much police themselves. If you cheat, you will probably get caught. If you get caught, you will be thrown out. And when that happens, it’s fun to watch.
The next month and a half is actually a great time to check out FCT. They are in the middle of March Trivia Madness, a yearly event with a 10-week, cumulative scoring tournament followed by a single game championship on April 21st. While it’s too late to qualify for or enter the tournament, the cumulative scoring system makes almost every show competitive with a good number of teams and challenging questions. You do NOT have to participate in the tournament to play any single game for the winnings in house cash. Moreover, in addition to the house cash winnings, if you win, place or show you can gloat over the tournament teams from whom you just sniped precious performance points. Heck, if you just beat my team (Fulmer’s Fat Ass – don’t even ask where the name came from, it just is ) I’ll buy you a beer!
Just be warned, it’s addictive as crack if you’re anywhere near as big a geek as I am. We play every Wednesday but will also be making it to some of the Monday games over the next month. We did so badly last Wednesday that we are driving out to Athens today for the two shows there to try to raise our score for the week ending today. So, while I urge everyone to come check it out, I take no responsibility for the consequences…
[In the interest of full disclosure, I am not affiliated in any way with Full Contact Trivia. I have been a participant for almost ten years and, while I would consider Bobby a friend, my real interest in bragging on him is to spread the gospel of honest-to-goodness, old-fashioned trivia to anyone who might be looking for it but maybe feared it didn't exist after experiencing the travesty that is Team Trivia (and in the interest of further disclosure, I have also never been affiliated with Team Trivia, just a former customer saddened by what it's become) ]
I just loved reading this! Your enthusiasm for the game is so endearing! You’ll have to let us know when y’all are competing at Brewhouse Avondale so we can come cheer you on! :0)
Forget cheering, you’ll need to PLAY, either with or against us!
Depending on the categories, it could be one and the same! :0)
J_T, your enthusiasm makes me long for the days of trivia at Avondale Pizza! My father would go every week and play – sometimes I could join him, sometimes a friend could join him, and sometimes he played by himself. He almost always won 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place, even when alone. That was when questions were about local politics (he once named every Georgia governor back to the 60s), sports, science, and sometimes music. Pop culture always killed him, but that’s where I’d come in handy! But the guy who ran the trivia moved to LA to pursue his musical dreams, and the teams started getting outrageously large. Hard to compete with a team of 25 people! Just wasn’t our thing anymore.
I did go to James Joyce to play once (maybe a year ago) but so many people were using their phones that it was more a contest of who was better at navigating their iPhone than a trivia contest. Perhaps we’ll give it another try.
Do give it another chance, Jess! I believe that James Joyce, now Brewhouse, used to (and possibly still does) have trivia 2 nights a week – Monday Full Contact Trivia and Wednesday Team Trivia or some other company. My ringing endorsement is solely for the Monday Full Contact Trivia (or the Wednesday game at the original Brewhouse in L5P, where we will be tonight). The Monday Avondale and Wednesday L5P shows are both hosted by Bobby Nettles. I can’t promise you that people will not be cheating with their phones but I can guarantee that if they do so and get caught, the result will be more entertaining than the actual trivia game!
Nah, not a hustler. I have the same problem with trivia that I do at darts. I’m probably good enough to hustle most people, but I’m too pathologically competitive to let them win first to set the trap!
I’ll say hi to Athens for ya. I just wish The Grit didn’t have that in-between brunch/dinner downtime so that I could fortify up with a Golden Bowl. I guess I’ll be stuck with a bean burrito and guacamole from the Taco Stand since I fear that the vegetarian options at the Blind Pig will be lacking.
So how did y’all’s games go? Are y’all back on top of the leader board?
And how’s Taco Stand these days? Their bean burrito, chips, and hot sauce used to be my ultimate favorite meal! A few years back, though, it seemed like they just stopped caring about the quality. I’d love to learn that they’re back to making the best damn bean burritos ever!
Bah! We should have stayed home! Sucked at trivia and didn’t even get to the Taco Stand because we got there too late so I can’t comment on the current quality, though I’ll admit that the price and convenience of the old place at Milledge and Prince outweighed any questions about the “quality”. I couldn’t even tell you how many nights my dinner consisted of a chicken burrito and a spinach quesadilla from that place. I can, however, tell you how many time I saw Michael Stipe there, which was just once.
Aw! Bummer! (Ooh! Yummy Quesadillas!)
I worked in a pizza joint with Michael’s sister back when REM was just becoming known. Michael would drift in ocasionally in his pajamas– he was very shy, so it was a pretty defiant twist because the frat boys would always sneer at him for it. ( Back then, townies and preppies NEVER mixed, so I’m talking ugly, vocal, all out scorn– the kind that had us worried that Michael would get beaten up.) Little did they know that he’d soon be turning Athens and the rest of the world upside down! What a trip it was when things began shifting to hear REM blasting from faternity & sorority row on my way to the Taco Stand!
Re: “Hatin’ on Walmart is so passe”. Don’t be sure of that. Maybe the corporate cheer leaders and hucksters have just worn us down! That does not mean hatin on a corporarte giant that any fact based history will show is a factor in the decline of locally owned, small retailers and the ability of workerss to support their families.
Folks should always seek to address legitimate issues, but angry groups hurling insults at Walmart and saying they’ll never shop in its stores won’t get it done. Actually, it makes it even easier for Walmart to blow them off without fearing repercussions from the rest of the public. Not meaning to put you on the spot (and it’s only because I really value your input and want to make sure I haven’t overlooked something key that I’d risk doing it), but which of our locally owned retailers are in peril from a Walmart coming in? And how are Walmart workers worse off than folks working basic retail jobs elsewhere?
Walmart’s arrival did great harm to small town America 2-3 decades ago, but we’ve got to look at where things stand now. It’s a flat fact that in recent years Walmart has proven to be a magnet for attracting other retailers and businesses. The Selig/Walmart plan for Suburban Plaza offers huge potential for spurring the redevelopment of the many blighted properties along Church St. and Scott Blvd. (Although the Athens plan needs some reworking, a Walmart with its affordable goods and job opportunities will be a welcome blessing for many of the nearby residents.)
I’m excited to see what Emory Pointe will bring. I’m amazed at how fast it’s coming together. I’ve never frequented any of those stores, but I know that a Jos. A. Banks is also supposed to open there and I’m excited for that. It’ll be nice not to drive all the way to Buckhead when I need new suits for work.
There’s a J.A. Bank downtown now. Take MARTA to Peactree Center and lug your suits home on the train. It’s next to Hooters.
Happy for the Fresh To Order in particular. Love the midtown location, though I get there rarely.
Congrats to Kathleen of Jazmin on expanding her spa empire.
Yes, that deserves congratulations. Now, how big does the empire have to get before her success will be held against her. Wal*Mart was once a five and dime and Starbucks a local coffee shop. Just hope she doesn’t do things too well.
It’s way too hard to drive up Clifton between 7 AM and 7 PM already. I remember we used to do it all the time to go to Jonathan Lee’s (now closed) back in the day. But no more.
Fortunately there are many, many fine dining spots south of North Decatur to enjoy now.
Also, all I see here are chains.
Pre-leasing space to chains is the only way anyone would lend money to build a new retail center in Atlanta, GA in 2012. Your typical local tenant isn’t going to sign a lease 6 months before the place is even built.
With enough “credit tenants” in place, they can probably lease to more local retailers. However, even then those locals will likely be tenants with good financial backing and track records of success. Real mom and pops aren’t typically going to be in a new center like this since they don’t have the credit.
Wait until the traffic gridlock occurs – Clifton Road will be a parking lot.
Just like the catastrophic aftermath of the roundabout! Oh, wait…
Emory Point shows that Dekalb county has some thoughtful urban planners working together with the community. Small businesses and mixed use projects like the ones mentioned are destined to thrive in the recovering economy. This is an exciting development and Cousins gets a thumbs up for their decades of expertise in the Atlanta area.
But since the subject was brought up again in this thread, the proposed Walmart development in Suburban Plaza up the road is an example of the opposite tact. We already have an ‘all at one’ shopping experience at the ‘Big Lots’ store, which is their highest grossing store in Atlanta. There is no need for a second big-box chain, which creates potentially more damage to communities.
Whether or not the zoning has been in place there for a super store isn’t the point. The argument against it is based on the changes since then in how liveable communities are perceived, the proximity of the city of Decatur, historic properties in the immediate vicinity and the fact that traffic will be greatly and adversely impacted. Good Growth Dekalb has suggested that an independent traffic study should be done – not by Selig or Walmart.
Other suggestions are just as valid; that the plaza isn’t an appropriate place for this kind of behemoth. And contrary to what has been said on this thread, we have offered examples of which businesses would be harmed – all of them!
Study after economic study has been done over two decades all over the country, including the DC based Economic Policy Institute, that show wherever Walmarts of this size go into a community, local and small businesses will soon falter. And the revenue from a big-box store always leaves the community, while local business (even a smaller chain) generates 3 times the stream and it stays within the community.
Environmental concerns are just as valid, since Walmart is not making any inroads into a ‘greener’ footprint. Only 2% of their electricity used comes from renewable sources. Other similar sized retailers have already reached 100% renewable energy. Walmart says it isn’t a profitable investment for them to go ‘green’, although their net profit is $25 billion a year. At the rate they’re going, it would take them 300 years to reach a goal of power from 100% renewable sources.
Those of us who are against this project are working with urban planners and our legislators to find other solutions.
Victoria-
“All of them” is Good Growth Dekalb’s settled on answer for which businesses are in peril from a Suburban Plaza Walmart? Huh. Well, thank goodness for y’all’s Outreach Walk then because it seems to have escaped the attention of most of the businesses downtown and nearby. Poor silly stores just going about things as if they can count on their customers’ loyalty. You’d think they’d of heard about their impending doom and set to howling long before now.
GGD’s admiration of the City of Decatur is certainly understandable; however, it seems that y’all haven’t taken the time to read our 2010 Strategic Plan goals for the next 10 years. Two things that citizens have expressed great interest in are having nearby shopping opportunities for basics and a shuttle system. Walmart and the other anchors it will attract will take care of the first goal, and I’d venture to bet that the shuttle now stands a real chance of happening because of this project.
One thing we know for sure won’t be happening is Selig or Walmart giving GGD the time of day.
The city of Decatur’s 2010 strategic plan had many different communities participating in their round tables and public forums. There’s nothing in the plan that advocates putting a Walmart in this area and everything that points to building up small businesses, the way that Decatur leadership built its own downtown over the last 15 years. That’s all covered in their Decatur 101 class – highly recommended.
Perhaps not everyone is aware that Suburban Plaza is in the county’s jurisdiction (for now), not the city’s. The Clifton Corridor transit project has been in the works for some time and is an Emory initiative, with an ask for a one-cent sales tax to pay for it.
Again, ‘basics’ are already covered by various shops and businesses in the area. No neighbor in the area needs this super-store, especially when there’s one only 4 miles away in Avondale.
Anyone who joined GGD’s march today -and it was covered by all the local TV news channels along with other press – learned how the city of Decatur feels about Walmart.
Nice treadjack.
“learned how the city of Decatur feels about Walmart”
**************************************************************
I am City of Decatur and I am excited about the new Walmart at Suburban Plaza. I’ll just assume that we all feel the same way about it then, thank you very much.
Why not think about the workers for a change. And sorry if this thread was ‘jacked’, but were the trivia comments really on point? No further comments.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/09/1072875/-American-and-Korean-worker-groups-rally-against-Walmart-in-Seoul?via=blog_1
Right you are, Victoria, and my profound apologies to the DM community for providing superfluous, off-topic information.
But since what’s done is done, let’s at least see who was more successful in their nefarious scheme. I see you had a whole hundred people at GGD’s protest on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I’m betting we can beat that on a rainy Monday night at Brewhouse for an admittedly trivial pursuit. And if not, at least we won’t have even the NPR news guy mocking us for chanting a silly slogan (“Super neighborhoods, not Supercenters”. Really, that’ s the best you could do?)
I could go on and try to explain how you’d be better off sticking to facts and presenting your own reasoned opinions rather than lecturing me about what I need (No super-center for you! Drive 4 miles like a good DeKalbian!) or how I feel (and, indeed, how the entire City of Decatur feels about Walmart!), but I’m sure such logic would fall on deaf ears. So I’ll just leave this “debate” secure in the knowledge that your little group speaks for a small minority of the community as a whole and, as such, has about zero chance of accomplishing your own misguided goals.
Now, back to the regularly scheduled DM programming…
Victoria- The way I read this article is that these people don’t work directly for Walmart. It doesn’t excuse ill treatment of workers no matter who they work for, it just means the things you are arguing about could apply to any retailer selling cheaply made items. I also noticed that most of the groups protesting seem to be union related, and you can make of that what you will while considering Walmart’s no-union stance.
Your arguments against the Walmart are so far and wide, that it appears you are just grasping at straws. By posting this article are we to infer you have expanded the GGD mission (still haven’t figured out what exactly that is) to include worldwide workers’ rights issues? if so, you’re going to be protesting Big Lots, Best Buy, Target, Toys R Us, Macy’s, the list is endless.
Pretend that this whole project was scrapped, and the plans moved the Walmart to the many empty car lots on Scott. Would that be satisfactory, or are you just opposed to Walmart wherever it happens to be?
If you’re going to respond as your group’s representative did to me and other posters requesting our names and emails, and suggesting that we have some inside interest with Walmart or Selig, like they did on Patch, then don’t bother responding. I noticed someone went through and deleted some of the more nutsy comments from your group representative Jennifer C., which was a smart move.
(DM- My doing. Now if you’ll just look the other way for a minute…:0)
We’re aware that Suburban Plaza is in unincorporated Dekalb. Since GGD’s outreach target today was the City of Decatur, that’s where I opted to focus. Read the full set of Roundtables & Academies comments that are behind our Strategic Plan, and you’ll learn that many participants said that they want to be able to shop nearby for basics and household goods. In my roundtable group we had folks clamoring for a Target or large general merchandise store. (That used to come up pretty often on Decatur Metro too.) BUT…not a big enough site for a box size store within the City’s borders. Fortunately there aren’t barricades at the city limit signs, so with Suburban Plaza’s planned re-do, City of Decatur residents will be soon be able to walk, bike, or drive the short distance to meet most shopping needs (as will the neighbors in the Eastland/Pensdale area). It’s already near impossible for the folks on the other side of Scott Blvd to safely cross over to shop, but at least now we’ll finally get a crack at addressing the nightmare 6 point intersection (and if you don’t think Selig and Walmart will bring some mighty heft in keeping GDOT’s attention on it, well…anyway…)…
The Clifton Corridor project should be a terrific asset to this area, as will the proposed Decatur shuttle if it happens (someone else can clue you in on it).
[Victoria- At some point you've really got to stop trying to tell the folks who actually live in the Suburban Plaza area how to approach this project. You don't have a personal stake in this, aside from your desire to take down Walmart. Why not channel your energies into the revitalization needs of the Memorial Drive Corridor? If the previous task force effort faltered, restart it! You've got it in you, so do it!]
I thought this thread was about Decatur Point but the poster by the name of Deanne has made it her forum to discuss completely unrelated topics. Is there someone monitoring this Board?
Deanne didn’t threadjack this post, Victoria did.
Actually, Gregg, I was the one responsible for the tangent by first mentioning Athens, comparing the Athens and Decatur protests and talking about, *horrors*, trivia. Tangents happen, sorry if that offends your “One Thread, One Subject” sensibility. It’s an ADD world, sir, and you are living in it.
That said, Victoria is the one who decided that a lecture was in order, a week after the last comment in the thread. Maybe I would be a better person if I could just shrug it off and ignore it when someone tries to tell me what’s good and what’s bad for me. Alas, I’m not.
J_T- You’re a doll, but I did carry on. I apologize to the folks who wanted to discuss chain stores slated for Emory Point only. The “gullible” comments just happened to come up when the Athens Rally was weighing on my mind.
PFABA Rally
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2012-03-03/occupy-athens-set-tents-outside-city-hall-protest-proposed-walmart
Selig’s and Mayor Denson’s responses:
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2012-03-05/walmart-developer-wont-meet-occupy-athens-demands
Oops. I did it again. :0/
Wow, dude, you take yourself way too seriously. Over and out.
Actually, J_T is the antithesis of somebody who takes himself too seriously. If you choose to hang around, that will become apparent, as will the fact that this is a moderated forum with a cadre of regular posters who are not at all timid about keeping each other in line as well as watching each others’ backs. As a stranger in town choosing to lead off by finger-wagging, I’d say you got off easy. If you choose not to take it personally, and if you put stock in spirited, mostly thoughtful and informed discussion mixed with a certain amount of silliness, then do stick around, it’ll be worth your while.
SHHHHHH, STG!!!! I am going to print out and frame this comment. Pretty sure it’s the first time in my 40-odd years that I’ve ever been accused of taking myself “too seriously”, let alone “way too seriously”! I just hope that someone starts monitoring this board…