Decatur Notes Retail Vacancies Are At Just 5%, Even After Recent Closings of Local Favs
Decatur Metro | March 7, 2017 | 12:34 pm
Many local residents felt the one-two sting after the recent closing of local favorite Yogurt Tap and popular chain Cook’s Warehouse/Sherlock’s Wine Merchant in the last few months.
But the city reminds us that while the short term loss is real, the longer-term trends remain quite strong. The recent Decatur Focus notes that “The downtown Decatur commercial retail vacancy rate is around 5 percent, which is significantly lower than the national average of 11.3 percent. In 2016, the City of Decatur had a net gain of businesses and employees. The handful of key storefronts that are currently vacant will most likely not be vacant for long.”
In fact, there’s already a new occupant in the old Yogurt Tap space. And while that Cook’s Warehouse space looks a bit like a sad, empty concrete gymnasium at the moment, we’re interested to see what will fill in that massive, unique space.
What retail gaps would you like to see filled in Decatur this year?
A second location of Rice Mac?
does Rice Mac do that well? we went right after they opened and were quite disappointed. now if Mediterranean Grill wants to move to Downtown Decatur….. 🙂
Andryannis does a good job in downtown Decatur if you want that kind of cuisine.
arcade
I second the arcade idea
The 1980s called; they want their idea back. 😉
It is not 10000sf, but they seem to be coming back.
http://gamexatl.com/ is downtown.
There is another large arcade under construction at Stonecrest Mail as well.
Personally, I want a roller rink, with an arcade and booze.
Why hasn’t anyone mentioned Trader Joe’s or Costco yet? Ok – some naysayers might suggest that the footprint, parking and catchment area might not work for these larger retailers…
What I’d like to see probably isn’t viable under GA law – a wineclub tasting room/wine store. For those of us who can’t do a tour of wineries in California or elsewhere but want to discover boutique wineries to join regular distribution, this could be a fun and high margin business. They could resell mail order wine club memberships and get a share of the membership revenue. Perhaps they could also sell Blue Apron, etc? It would be an experiential retail environment that is light on inventory with a rotating offering to drive discovery.
If that doesn’t work, someone should just put up a one stop Decatur shop that offers growlers, beard grooming and cupcakes. the grooming would have to come after the cupcakes.
Wasn’t there the Little Wine Shop that did tastings in Avondale and it didn’t last. Sherlock’s used to do tastings too and not they’re gone. I think I saw another wine shop that looked like it might be opening down the street from where the Little Wine Shop was, so maybe that’s what you’re looking for.
There was a wine by the glass bar called Tastings that was open for a couple of years. The owners of the franchise appeared to give it a good go but the concept never caught on.
There is already a place that does prepared take home meals that opened where Sawicki’s used to be. For a local Blue Apron type service, there is Garnish & Gather, which I believe is owned by a Decatur family. They specialize in “locally sourced food, ethically raised meats and sustainable seafood,” which screams Decatur.
The parking situation does seem ideal for a Trader Joe’s.
“The parking situation does seem ideal for a Trader Joe’s”
Nor does the square footage.
Performance space?
I could see a Savi Urban market going in there and succeeding with the right product mix.
I agree. I have been emailing Savi Market and asking them to come to Decatur. Please join me in letting them know they would have support