About a year and a half after getting a site plan change approved by the county, Valvoline Instant Oil Change is beginning to break ground for a new facility on the former site of a Chevron gas station at Roswell Road and Johnson Ferry Road.
Crews have been digging up what’s left of the Chevron pavement in the northwest corner of one of East Cobb’s busiest intersections and we noticed this sign for the first time on Friday.
As we reported last year, Valvoline needed to run a site plan amendment by Cobb commissioners to convert the 0.95-acre tract into a three-bay oil change facility totalling 2,088 square feet.
Plans call for a landscaping plan and 15 parking spaces, and access will be right-in and right-out only on Roswell Road westbound.
The Chevron station that opened in the 1970s closed in late 2020, and was demolished in early 2021. The property has sat largely untouched ever since.
The Valvoline filings and county property tax records indicate that the two parcels making up the 0.95 acres have a combined appraised value of $822,240.
The owner one of those tracts, Ruth McLaughlin, the former Chevron owner, also owns 0.71 acres directly behind it that’s valued at $1.24 million.
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Dr. Leia Dawson and her husband, Brandon Dawson, the business development officer for the AFC Urgent Care location in East Cobb. ECN photo and video.
There’s still some staff training and final checks to undergo, but the American Family Care Urgent Care location in East Cobb should be open by later this week.
That’s the estimate that Dr. Leia Dawson, the new clinic’s medical director, said after a ribbon-cutting celebration on Tuesday.
The 3,600-square-foot facility at Merchant’s Festival Shopping Center (1401 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 390) is in the space of an urgent care facility that was bought out by Wellstar Health System.
It will provide a wide range of urgent and primary care walk-in services for adults and urgent care needs for minors, seven days a week.
Dawson, who’s headed a Floyd Urgent Care location in Rockmart and an AllCare location in Dallas, Ga., said AFC Urgent Care’s goal is simple.
“We want to ease some of the pressure off the ER,” said Dawson, who holds a Doctor of Osteopathy degree and is board-certified in family medicine.
“Our goal is to have you in and out in an hour.”
She said the time can depend upon the nature of an injury or service need.
AFC Urgent Care’s services include diagnostics tests with on-site equipment, including an X-ray machine, an on-site laboratory, occupational health exams and worker’s comp cases and “point of care” treatment for the flu, COVID and other illnesses.
AFC, based in Birmingham, has other Urgent Care locations in metro Atlanta, including near Town Center and in Roswell, among its 350 franchised locations around the country.
Dawson’s husband Brandon is the East Cobb clinic’s director of business development. They live in North Cobb with their two children.
AFC’s mission, according to Laura Bradbury, the company’s vice president of franchise operations, “is to bring health care to the community. That’s what makes us successful.”
Dawson noted a shortage of nurses and other medical personnel at facilities that has resulted in extended waiting and service times.
“It’s an economical option for people who don’t want to go to the hospital,” said Jack Norton, who’s doing media and public relations for the East Cobb facility.
The AFC Urgent Care location in East Cobb will include 14 staffers in addition to Dawson, including two nurse-practitioners. There also will be another medical doctor on call.
The location accepts most health insurance coverage. No appointments are needed.
Hours are fro 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Friday and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.
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One of Jerri Heacock’s regular customers is East Cobb resident John Galt. ECN photo.
As Jerri Heacock began her job at the East Cobb Barber Shop Saturday morning, she was greeted by customers without appointments.
They weren’t walk-up clients, but regulars whose hair she had just cut, and she wondered what was up.
Some were bearing gifts and roses, and before long her co-workers had rolled out some cupcakes, balloons, and a signed card.
Her boss, owner Dee Reitz, had organized a surprise to mark Heacock’s 20th anniversary working for the old-style barber shop, and kept the secret well.
“I kind of had a hint,” Heacock said, but admitted she was still surprised when the full party complement was unveiled.
She’s the longest-serving stylist under Reitz, who took over the more than 37-year-old business in 2000. Heacock has the honor of working at “the first chair.”
That’s literally the first person customers see when they walk in the doors of the 600-square-foot space at Merchants Festival Shopping Center.
Usually that goes to a barber shop owner, but Reitz said Heacock has earned it.
“She just always has a smile, really knows how to build a rapport with customers. That’s why she’s the first chair.”
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Heacock attended Roffler’s Barber College and had worked at other barber shops when she heard about an opening at East Cobb Barber Shop.
“I just called and said I needed a job,” said Heacock, who was a single mother at the time.
That was on a Thursday, and two days later, she was working a chair on a trial basis. Initially she worked three days a week, but has been full time for many years.
The East Cobb Barber Shop, Heacock said, “just became family. It’s homey.”
She and Reitz are best friends, and when “you spend so much time with them they become family. It feels like home.”
Reitz and her staff of three stylists were rocked when the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March 2020. The shop was closed for a month, but Heacock came back after two months, bored at home and itching to see her clients.
“I missed my customers,” she said. “You get real close to them, and that’s why I love to do what I do.”
Customer John Galt, Heacock’s last of the day on Saturday, is among the regulars. He said he’s not coming as frequently as he once did—around every three weeks or so—but knows who he wants to see when he does come.
“I first started coming because it was so convenient,” said Galt, who lives in East Cobb. “Jerri has been good to me.”
He’s also a retired from the U.S. Army, and East Cobb Barber Shop reaches out to military veterans.
Reitz said she’s appreciated Heacock’s longevity not just because of her work ethic and the time it takes time to build up a loyal clientele, but also because it’s difficult to hire and keep good stylists.
“I’ve had several people where it just didn’t work out,” Reitz said. “I don’t like turnover.”
Having a reliable, friendly and familiar face “makes people feel comfortable.”
East Cobb Barber Shop staff, L-R: Stylists Matt Crawford, Lisa Owen and Jerri Heacock and owner Dee Reitz. Photo courtesy Jerri Heacock
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“My heart is full,” Olea Oliva! owner Smita Daya said as she and her husband plan to retire in Italy. ECN photo
The Olea Oliva! store at Avenue East Cobb, which sells gourmet olive oils, balsamic vinegars, spices, herbal teas and other artisanal food items, is closing.
The married couple of owner Smita Daya and her husband Dilip Daya are retiring and moving to Italy, where they have been frequently spending time in the nearly eight years since they opened the store.
The last day of business is Oct. 15, and a closing sale is underway, with 30 percent off full purchases using the promo code OLEAVIP30.
Smita Daya, who opened Olea Oiva! after a career handling commercial closings for a law firm, said she and her husband, both natives of rural areas of Africa, “are going back to the farm life.”
They’ve had a co-share housing arrangement near Florence, Italy, where they cultivated expertise in the olives, vinegars and wines that they featured in the store. (Dilip Daya, who has had a career in information technology, helps at the store and is an olive oil sommelier.)
“It’s time,” Daya said of her decision to close Olea Oliva!, which has been several months in the making. “I think I’ve had a good run. When it’s time, it’s time, and in my heart I feel it’s time.”
Daya and her husband raised two daughters who are Walton High School graduates, one of whom is a medical doctor.
She said she’s proud of what she learned and put to use as a business owner in a retail world that was challenging even before COVID-19.
Daya said she looks at her decision to close the store “not as a failure but as an experience. I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to make so many friends and connecting with local business owners. I have grown as a woman and as an entrepreneur.”
Daya’s passion for healthy eating—a plant-based diet infused with olive oil—was at the heart Olea Oliva!
Her cookbook, “An Odyssey of Flavors,” was published in 2018, and when she moved the store to larger space at Avenue East Cobb, she conducted cooking workshops and wine tastings on-site.
“I love food and it has been a passion,” she said. “I took it to a different place.”
There’s a final wine-tasting and four=course Mediterranean meal this Saturday, with three spots left, and she’s donating all the proceeds to APTERS Zambia, a non-profit charity started by her daughter Annika that provides mobility aids for children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities in the African country.
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The last update we got from Barnes and Noble in June about its forthcoming bookstore at Avenue East Cobb targeted an October opening, and that’s still the case.
The company released some photos of the interior below, and we took the above shot that’s showing a bit more progress.
There’s still not a specific opening date for the book retailer’s 15,000-square-foot occupancy of a portion of the former Bed Bath and Beyond space.
It’s a smaller footprint than the traditional Barnes and Noble store (typically they’re around 25,000 square feet) and will feature more locally curated recommendations from store managers and a cafe.
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The former Zaxby’s restaurant across from the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center has been transformed into special event space.
Last week Nazanin Moradimehr (with scissors), owner of Elegance Events (2080 Lower Roswell Road) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
A Wheeler High School graduate, she has more than two decades in the restaurant and catering industry, and opened Elegance Events in June with a grand opening.
Elegance Events, located in the Newmarket Shopping Center, caters mostly to weddings, but also is available for baby showers, birthdays, anniversaries, bar/bat mitzvahs and corporate events.
The facility ideally holds 120 guests but can expand to 200 and includes outdoor space. Inside, features include gold-draped tables, a large bar and a wall-to-wall projection screen.
Services include customized music, table settings and floral arrangements, balloon arches, sculptures, photography, disc jockeys, lighting and audio and event set-up.
Catering items featuring Mediterranean, Persian, Moroccan and other international cuisines in a fully-stocked kitchen.
Moradimehr was an exhibitor at the recent Georgia Bridal Show at the Cobb Galleria Centre and the Atlanta Wedding Extravaganza, and has organized special events at other locations.
For information and to schedule a tour call 813-817-4659 or e-mail info@eleganceeventsatl.com.
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Botanical Sciences, a physician-owned medical cannabis provider, held a grand opening event this week at its new Cobb location at 2468 Windy Hill Road.
The company grows, manufactures and dispenses medical cannabis and has plans to operate five dispensaries in metro Atlanta and Georgia.
The Cobb dispensary is open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. for patients using medical cannabis for a variety of health issues, ranging from autism and cancer to Parkinson’s Disease and Tourette’s Syndrome.
It’s the second such medical cannabis dispensary in Cobb, opening not long after Trulieve’s Marietta Medical Dispensary on Cobb Parkway near Whitewater.
Botanical Services (website here), which was founded in 2020, sells a variety of tinctures, capsules and topicals for home use by patients approved to use medical cannabis.
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A few hundred spectators decked out in garden-party attire watched as a large green curtain was pulled down Thursday to reveal a new public plaza at Avenue East Cobb.
The centerpiece of the retail center’s redevelopment also features a live music stage, and a high-energy cover band rocked the venue for a couple of hours after that, as guests munched on appetizers from current and forthcoming restaurants, enjoyed cocktails and danced.
More than a year in the making, the new open-air plaza signals a new phase for Avenue, which has been rebranded as it has been re-energized.
An official from North American Properties, which signed on as a management partner last year, calls it “East Cobb’s hometown hangout,” with the purpose tied to getting the public to come, and stay.
Two new “jewel box” restaurants are still under construction, and some outdoor seating has been set up in front of Round Trip Brewing Co., which will be opening a German-style taproom next spring.
But the plaza is officially open to the public, and continuing events such as Friday night live music are on tap. That includes “Electric Avenue” concerts every Friday from 6-8 p.m. through October.
The plaza features a variety of comfortable chairs and sofas and two bar areas, along with a green turf in front of the stage suitable for spreading out blankets.
Rev. Dr. Ike Reighard, CEO of MUST Ministries, thanked the attendees.
The venue also includes optional valet parking, which some cocktail party guests took advantage of at Thursday’s event.
The cost was $75 a person, but all the proceeds went to MUST Ministries.
CEO Ike Reighard said the result was $10,000 for the Marietta non-profit, which typically served around 300 homeless clients per night before COVID-19.
That figure shot up to 1,500 a night during the height of the pandemic.
“The only thing that exceeded the level of need was the level of generosity, and that’s what you did,” he said.
Reighard, who’s also senior pastor at Piedmont Church, told the audience that “you won’t hear a minister saying ‘drink up,’ but thank you.”
Pimiento cheese grit fritters from Peach State Pizza.
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Kelly Boatright, who with husband Kyle Boatright is a co-0wner of a new Stretch Zone fitness studio in East Cobb, has passed the information and photos marking its grand opening.
It’s located in the East Cobb Crossing Shopping Center (4371 Roswell Road) near Dog City Bakery.
Stretch Zone features a special method “to reeducate the nervous system to increase the active range of motion,” according to a company release.
The goal is to maximize flexibility regardless of athletic ability or body type, and the instructors are certified in the method.
Stretch Zone, which has 300 locations, including Acworth, Kennesaw and Roswell, is utilized by professional athletes for training, competition and recovery, and has a partnership with former NFL quarterback Drew Brees.
Those who sign up for a package through September will enter a drawing for a jersey signed by Brees
“I started my relationship with Stretch Zone on the table, when I started receiving treatment to alleviate my hip pain,” Kelly Boatright says. “I’ve seen firsthand the difference this practice can make in mobility and wellness, and we are extremely excited to share those differences with our neighbors in the East Cobb community.”
She said the new East Cobb location is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Friday and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. It’s closed on Sunday.
First visits are free and customers can begin earning Flex Points, Stretch Zone’s rewards program, upon sign-up.
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Seven students from high schools in East Cobb have been named to the 2023 class of Cobb Youth Leadership, a development program from high school juniors.
The Cobb Chamber of Commerce said in a release that the program is sponsored by the Leadership Cobb Alumni Association and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and includes interactive participation.
The students recently had their orientation session and will be introduced to community leaders and activities in public safety, public service, business and entrepreneurship, arts and culture, health and sports and armed forces:
“Through six evening programs during the course of the school year participants in the CYL program are introduced to local, state, and national leaders. They also receive information on the responsibility, ethics, and tools for effective leadership, as well as potential career paths for after graduation. The monthly programs run from August through April. They cover topics such as community service, arts & culture, armed forces, and business. Students also participate in one overnight retreat where they focus on team building and personality inventories.”
This year there are 55 students participating, and they include the following from East Cobb schools:
Josh Markwood and Kali Sweeney, Wheeler High School
Aidan Matthews, Walton High School
Ryan Duckett, Lassiter High School
Sam Moon and Rebekah Ives, Sprayberry High School
Dylan Tolchinski, Pope High School
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Judy Boyce (center) and her late husband, former Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce, were the 2022 East Cobb Citizens of the Year.
Submitted information:
The Cobb Chamber is now accepting nominations for the 2023 Citizen of the Year Awards. The Citizen of the Year Awards, created by Cobb County civic clubs and co-sponsored by the Cobb Chamber Area Councils and Cobb County business associations, have annually been presented to extraordinary individuals for the work they have done in Cobb County.
Awards are given to deserving individuals based on nine local area nominations: Acworth, Austell, East Cobb, Kennesaw, Mableton, Marietta, Powder Springs, Smyrna, and West Cobb. Given to honor an individual whose impact through the years will be recognized and regarded with pride throughout the area as a role model, these outstanding citizens are chosen for their definable, exceptional deeds, with which he or she has made their community a better place to live.
The presenting sponsor is Capital City Bank. For more information on the Citizen of the Year Awards, contact Katie Guice at 770-859-2334 or kguice@cobbchamber.org.
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Town Center Community has announced nominations are open for the 2023 Townie Awards. The annual ceremony recognizes community members, leaders and businesses for contributions to Town Center Community, one of the most accessible and prosperous areas in metro Atlanta.
“From transformational projects and innovation to economic prosperity and growth, we have so much to celebrate,” said Tracy Styf, executive director of the Town Center CID. “Our success depends on the people who make Town Center a community, and these awards are our chance to say thank you.”
Award categories include:
Community Champion
This category recognizes an individual or organization who has made significant contributions to Town Center and the community at large. Through evident commitment to the betterment of the community in all they do, it acknowledges efforts to make Town Center Community a vibrant place for the future.
Commercial Champion
Awarded to a commercial property owner and/or business located within Town Center CID’s district, this category celebrates community involvement to create a thriving Town Center. Whether through investment, relocation or community engagement, it recognizes work that advances Town Center CID’s vision of connecting commerce, retail, restaurants, parks, trails and residential communities.
Town Center Champion
This category honors an individual or organization who is a Town Center Community ambassador, contributing to the legacy of creating a vision for a more prosperous future that will impact generations to come.
“These awards are about partnership which is even reflected in the award’s design,” said Jennifer Hogan, director of community for the Town Center CID. “It was through our partnership with KSU and the Master Craftsmen Program that we were able to procure a beautiful, customized design that speaks directly to Town Center Community’s vision to integrate infrastructure with natural elements and spaces.”
Nominations are open until Oct. 13, and winners will be announced at the State of the District event on Oct. 24, 2023. Award submissions can be completed online by visiting towncentercid.com/surveys-events.
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The Atlanta-based skincare studio Faced The Facial Studio will open its fourth location at The Avenue East Cobb on Sept. 8.
It’s moving into the former Ansley Real Estate space (4475 Roswell Road, Suite 200), next to the forthcoming Barnes & Noble store.
The grand opening takes place from 5-8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 8, and include introductory offers, product demonstrations and meeting the staff, along with refreshments and skincare expertise.
Faced The Facial offers skincare services that include routine facials (starting at $90), steam and extractions, microdermabrasion and LED light therapy and more.
The studio also offers monthly memberships that include savings, discounts on skincare products priority booking and other perks.
Faced The Facial is an Atlanta-based company founded by Ansley Bowman, and that has three other locations, all in the city—Buckhead Village, Morningside Village and the Westside Provisions District.
She formerly worked in the fashion industry in New York. Faced The Facial also has produced a number of branded skincare products that are available at its locations.
The new location at The Avenue East Cobb will be open seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Friday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.
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A solo dancer performs at a Dance Stop Studios open house Saturday. ECN photos and video.
The family feel among the Dance Stop Studios staff isn’t just a slogan or a talking point.
Many of the top instructors at the East Cobb dance instruction studio took classes there when they were kids, and returned as adults.
“They started with us when they were young and came back because they love the children,” said owner Lynette Strickland, who opened her business in a small former house in East Marietta near the Big Chicken in 1974.
One of the oldest locally-run businesses in East Cobb opened for its 50th season on Monday.
Operating for the last dozen or so years at the Merchants Exchange Shopping Center on Roswell Road, Dance Stop threw a bit of a bash for itself and the public on Saturday.
In addition to tours and refreshments, some current students performed demonstrations of their routines. Others showed up in their dancing clothes anyway.
Dance Stop offers dance classes to youths and adults in jazz, tap dance, ballet and other genres, as well as specialty classes for yoga, Zumba and Barre enthusiasts.
Strickland said the business has anywhere from 600-800 participants taking part in Dance Stop activities.
While many of the students come for exercise and enjoyment, those with other ambitions take part in the Dance Stop Company, a non-profit that started in 1980. It conducts auditions and holds performances for the public at larger venues, as well as at assisted living centers and for special events.
Strickland moved Dance Stop from its original location to a nearby building seeking more space, then to Merchants Walk as the East Cobb area began growing along the Johnson Ferry corridor.
“We’ve outgrown every place we had,” she said. “As East Cobb came out this way, we did too.”
She previously had two other Dance Stop locations in the East Cobb area that have been consolidated into the current location, which has four separate dance floors and a refreshment area near the front lobby.
Ray Hall, a former student who’s an associate director and instructor, trained with the School of American Ballet and the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater in New York.
Julia May is another former Dance Stop student whose daughter is following her in her footsteps.
Kathy Pickle, who’s taught at Dance Stop for 30 years, came from California, where she worked in the film industry as a dancing double for actress Berrnadette Peters and was with the famed June Taylor Dancers.
“They’re just fabulous teachers,” Strickland said. “They know our style.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic closed Dance Stop, Strickland and her staff taught classes via Zoom for some time.
“It was difficult,” she said, noting dance recitals and other company performances were also called off in 2020.
The following year, “we saw a decline in the number of our young students, but it’s picking up.”
When asked about her own longevity in a demanding business, Strickland doesn’t hesitate to answer—with a beaming smile.
“One thing about this job—it’s just so much fun,” she said. “We have great students and I work with people I love. They love it as much as I love it.
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Renderings of The Avenue East Cobb’s dining space in the forthcoming “jewel boxes.”
As we posted last month, The Avenue East Cobb will be unveiling its new plaza on Sept. 7 with a cocktail celebration.
Today, tickets went on sale for the event, which lasts from 6-9 p.m., which costs $75 a person, with all proceeds being donated to MUST Ministries.
There will be food samplings from new restaurants, an open bar with bourbon tastings, music and other entertainment. Attire is cocktail-appropriate, what North American Properties, The Avenue’s management company, describes as “garden party chic.”
The Plaza is the centerpiece of the retail center’s redevelopment, which has been underway since last December.
The public square will include a music stage and dining areas near the new “jewel box” restaurant space, which includes Press Waffle Co., as well as Peach State Pizza, which is moving into the former Stockyard Burgers & Bones space.
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Elected officials and Kroger representatives christened the new store on Powers Ferry Road Wednesday morning. ECN photos and video
After years of anticipation, a Kroger “SuperStore” opened at the MarketPlace Terrell Mill development in East Cobb Wednesday with an early-morning celebration.
Before they headed off to school, cheerleaders and a pep band from Wheeler High School set the tone for the festivities, which included a special dedication to the supermarket chain’s partnership with local schools.
After elected officials and Kroger executives spoke, they cut the ceremonial ribbon, then ushered onlookers inside to have a first look at the 90,000-square-foot store, Kroger’s first locally of such an expanded concept.
The store, which also includes a gas station, is the centerpiece of the redevelopment that includes apartments, fast-casual restaurants and small retail, and touted as a catalyst for improvements along the Powers Ferry Road corridor.
Victor Smith, Kroger’s Atlanta division president, thanked former Commissioner Bob Ott and Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance president Patti Rice, among others, “for helping to make this happen.”
He said Kroger is investing $38 million in the project, which has expanded “everything” from its recently closed store just down Powers Ferry Road.
Ott, who lives nearby and who served three terms as District 2 commissioner until 2021, said “it’s been a long time coming.”
The nearly 24 acres at Powers Ferry and Terrell Mill Road previously housed some office, retail and restaurant space that was aging. The Kroger at 1311 Powers Ferry Road sits on the former site of Brumby Elementary School, which relocated to Terrell Mill Road in 2018.
“We started talking about [redevelopment] during the economic downturn,” he said. “For a while I wasn’t sure it was going to happen.”
The Development Authority of Cobb County approved issuing $35 million in revenue bonds for the part of the project containing the Kroger store, because it was listed on the county’s roster of redevelopment properties.
East Cobb resident and former Cobb Commission Chairman candidate Larry Savage challenged the tax breaks, which were initially invalidated in Cobb Superior Court.
While the case was on appeal, Kroger said it might not go ahead with the MarketPlace Terrell Mill store if it lost in court.
But in June 2019, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the tax breaks, which exempt Kroger completely in the store’s first year of operation. Kroger will gradually pay an assessed tax value phased in over a 10-year period, rising by 10 percent each year.
(According to Cobb tax records, the Development Authority is listed as the owner of the 10.8 acres on which the Kroger project sits, and it has an appraised value of nearly $12 million).
For a time, supporters of the project worried their aspirations may not be realized.
“Never!” Rice said when asked if she thought this day would come. “I’m just so happy. They said it would be the last thing to go in. It’s beautiful.”
“It’s fresh. It’s new. It’s got a lot of product,” Ott said.
Customers pass by a specially-designed mural of local landmarks at the entrance, leading into a cornucopia of fresh-cut flowers, an abundance of produce offerings and fully stocked sushi, delicatessen, bakery and meat and seafood counters.
There’s also a location of Murray’s Cheese Shop, which has 42 spots in metro Atlanta, including Kroger stores at Parkaire Landing and the Pavilions at East Lake in East Cobb.
Aisle after aisle after aisle are loaded name-brand foods, frozen goods, personal care and household products, toiletries and pet food. (The store is still waiting for a retail beer and wine sales license.)
Smith said that’s part of Kroger’s “unwavering commitment to our purpose—to help feed the human spirit.”
The vacated Kroger store at Powers Ferry and Delk Road that served the community for 42 years had been proposed for apartments earlier this year.
The Marietta City Council approved rezoning for 322 units in April, but Mayor Steve Tumlin vetoed the project.
Ott said he’s confident that that property will be redeveloped eventually, and “it will become something great.”
The MarketPlace, he said, has inspired other improvements in the area, including the redevelopment of Restaurant Row, with the Rose and Crown Tavern relocating back there soon.
Tasty China Restaurant is also moving from the Franklin Gateway to property that once housed the La Frontera Restaurant on Powers Ferry Road.
Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said that “renewal does something. It energizes community and inspires confidence.”
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It made common sense as a first-time business owner to meet others for networking, referrals, and doing some business.
What I didn’t know was the extent to which many of these small-business owners go to serve their communities.
As in really serving their communities.
After a corporate sales career, ECBA member Butch Carter in 2013 became the owner of Honest-1 Auto Care in East Cobb and Johns Creek, and where I’ve happily had my vehicles serviced over the years.
But like many business owners I’ve come to know through ECBA and elsewhere, that’s only the start of what Carter means for the community.
He’s also the current president of the Rotary Club of East Cobb, which next weekend will stage its biggest fundraiser, the Dog Days Run.
The Rotary Club is involved in charitable work in this community and beyond to an amazing degree, and has set a goal of raising $100,000 from that event that it will give out to more than 20 non-profit organizations.
Carter touched on this effort earlier this month at the ECBA regular business luncheon, which was themed around the ideas of business and community building.
“We’re typical of a lot of small businesses in East Cobb in that we give back to the community,” Carter said.
He calls what he advocates “cause marketing” and at the luncheon representatives of other Cobb non-profits spoke, including Shelly Owen of the Cobb Community Foundation, which she says connects “donors who care with causes they like.
“We’re not the fixer of the problem, but we’re the convener of those who can.”
She said the CCF last did an extensive human needs assessment in 2019, right before the COVID-19 pandemic, and will be conducting another one this fall.
CCF helps connect major and corporate donors with its Corporate Community Champions program.
“It’s an awesome way to connect with others in the community,” Owen said.
On a small-business scale, Honest-1 is involved in efforts to raise awareness for breast cancer that started by selling pink wiper-blades.
He urged his fellow business owners to think creatively about how they can help, by donating items or products or services from their businesses, as well as expertise.
An Air Force veteran, Carter has has held cookouts for veterans at his shop on East Cobb Drive and has supported the work of United Military Care, an East Cobb non-profit that assists veterans and next weekend will have its We CARE Vet Fair at the Cobb Civic Center.
It’s a place for veterans who need services, help navigating the Veterans Administration bureaucracy, and basic assistance with food, housing and medical care.
Leenie Ruben, a retired marketing professional who does community outreach for United Military Care, has found the value of associating with the ECBA, and attends many events.
She said at the luncheon that the work of UMC continues to grow, with the ranks of veterans in Cobb County swelling to more than 44,000.
Another longtime ECBA member, Susan Hampton, has spearheaded the organization’s sponsorship of an appreciation dinner for Cobb Police Precinct 4 staff and the entire Cobb Fire and Emergency Services Department.
She’s expanded that advocacy into a role with the Cobb County Public Safety Foundation, a non-profit that supports local public safety professionals.
Next Saturday, that group also will have a benefit event, the First Responder 5K Run/Walk, at The Battery Atlanta.
ECBA member Susan Hampton is also involved with the Cobb Public Safety Foundation and the East Cobb Lions Club.
Hampton, a former East Cobb Citizen of the Year, also is involved with the East Cobb Lions Club, which conducts 15,000 eye screenings a year for children in need.
These are all examples of what MUST Ministries CEO Dr. Ike Reighard offered to urge business owners and leaders to start “kicking your buts.”
“I would like to help, but . . . ” is the common refrain that Reighard, also the senior pastor of Piedmont Church in East Cobb, said he has heard in many years of community advocacy.
He picked up on the theme of cause marketing by explaining that “people look for companies and organizations that are oriented that way.”
He rattled off many things that “volunteering does for you,” including making new friends and staying connected with people close, instead of resorting to screen companionship.
“You get surrounded by people who have the same values that you have,” Reighard said. “And you’re building friendships along the way. It makes you happier.”
Volunteering “also gets you out of your comfort zone. The day your memories are greater than your dreams, you’re dead in the water. It gives you a sense of purpose.”
Carter said the work of blending business and serving community is an easy “win-win” for both.
“Our goal is to help build a better community.”
If you’d to get involved in any of these organizations financially and/or as a volunteer—and you don’t have to be a business owner—here are their links:
There’s still a good bit of work to be done on the new plaza area at The Avenue East Cobb, which is the centerpiece of the retail center’s ongoing redevelopment project.
But North American Properties, The Avenue’s management company, announced this week that it’s scheduled an unveiling of “The Plaza” in early September.
A cocktail event takes place on Thursday, Sept. 7, from 6-9 p.m., with appropriate attire, and featuring live music, light food and drink and more.
It’s being billed as “an exclusive first look at the Redefined Avenue East Cobb,” and tickets will go on sale Monday, Aug. 7 at 9 a.m. More information can be found by clicking here.
The Plaza is a public space that will include live music and other special events.
Tickets for the unveiling are $75 per person, and include a complimentary open bar and food tastings from new restaurants that are part of the overhaul, including the two “jewel box” buildings going up on either side of The Plaza.
All ticket proceeds from the cocktail event will benefit MUST Ministries.
For redevelopment updates, including a construction livestream, click here.
A rendering of The Plaza, with a music stage in the background.
There’s also a new women’s clothing store that’s coming soon to The Avenue. It’s called Evereve, which has more than 100 retail locations around the country, including two others in metro Atlanta, and is going in next to Warby Parker.
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The finishing touches are being put on the new Kroger Superstore that’s the centerpiece of the MarketPlace Terrell Mill development in the heart of the Powers Ferry Road corridor.
It’s one of the last components of the project to open, and a ribbon-cutting has been scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 2, at 8 a.m.
The store is a 90,000-square foot “superstore,” one of the largest for Kroger in the metro Atlanta area, and includes a drive-through pharmacy, a dedicated area for online pickups and a fuel center with 18 pumps that recently opened.
Kroger spokeswoman Tammie Young-Ennaemba said the public is invited to assemble for a rally at 7:30 a.m. before the ribbon-cutting.
The store will open to the public after that, leaving two restaurants as the final additions of the $120 million MarketPlace Terrell Mill, which replaced aging office buildings, retail space and the original campus of Brumby Elementary School and was developed by Connolly and Eden Rock Real Estate Partners.
The Los Abuelos Mexican Grill, with existing locations in Newnan and John Creek, was tentatively to have opened in June at the Shoppes At MarketPlace, but there’s not an update on a new timeline. The Terrell Mill location has a sign in the window indicating that a liquor license has been applied for.
The same is a couple doors down where The Brass Tap Craft Beer Bar is preparing for an opening in August. It’s a a Tampa-based chain with Atlanta-area locations at Perimeter Center, Milton and Hapeville.
A couple miles down Powers Ferry, the Rose and Crown Tavern is expected to reopen this summer, along with a companion restaurant between the new Bexley and Overture apartment complexes on what was Restaurant Row.
An update on the restaurant’s Facebook page was no more specific than this:
“Rose & Crown Tavern and R & C Kitchen coming to you this summer season.”
The tavern (1935 Powers Ferry Road), the last surviving business in Restaurant Row, closed in July 2019 for what was intended to be only two years.
But it’s been a little more than three, as COVID-19-related and other delays have kicked in. Owner Miquel Ayoub has directed customers to the Mojave restaurant he opened on Powers Ferry Road in Sandy Springs in early 2019.
East Cobb News has left a message seeking more information. Readers also asked for more specifics:
“Hurry up and open already!”
“Is Shrimp and Grits still on the menu?”
Not far up the street, a standalone building for the relocating Tasty China Restaurant (1808 Powers Ferry Road) also is nearing completion.
The popular Szechuan restaurant is moving from Franklin Gateway, where it opened in 1998, to the former site of La Frontera Restaurant. A tentative opening was for the spring, and there’s not an update beyond a liquor license application notice in a front window.
At Terrell Mill Village, the former Kouzina Christos space has a new occupant. It’s the forthcoming Milancho Fresh Market & Kitchen, part of a New Jersey-based chain of locations featuring European-style groceries and with a focus on traditional Bulgarian food products.
There was a Milancho grocery and cafe in Smyrna but that closed in early 2022.
And for the time being, the Starbucks on an outparcel facing Powers Ferry and Terrell Mill Road is closed, as the coffee shop is being renovated.
That includes the drive-through window, and there are cones blocking access to the parking lot and drive-through lanes.
Across Powers Ferry, the Jacobs Java Cafe (1350 Terrell Mill Road) serves up Chicago-style coffee, espressos, and smoothies as well as a variety of hot dogs. You can also buy bags of its coffee blend.
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“COVID changed everything,” Zéba owner Sima Abbasi said. “Some for the better, some not.” ECN photos
In January, Zéba Hair Salon marked its 15th anniversary, a testament to the resilience of a small business that like many of its kind had to weather a devastating blow when it was closed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Making changes along the way was nothing new for owner Sima Abbasi, who started a hair-care and makeup business started at the Merchants Festival Shopping Center in 2008.
She opened a second location at the Shallowford Falls Shopping Center in 2017 and developed a loyal staff and clientele. One of her stylists, Paige Whiffen, had come on board as a business partner, as Zéba built on being a L’Oréal Elite salon with other colorists specializing in Redken and INOA.
Then the unthinkable happened, when Gov. Brian Kemp’s emergency order kept many personal-care businesses, restaurants and other public-facing enterprises shuttered for weeks. To be declared non-essential, Abbasi, said, was a surreal experience.
Zéba partner Paige Whiffen
“We were so numb,” she said, sitting down with Whiffen in a recent interview with East Cobb News. “COVID changed everything. Some for the better, some not.”
After being closed for two months, Zéba couldn’t reopen fully due to social-distance requirements, and it wasn’t until November that they “were okay again. But we could only see so many people.”
Business at Zéba’s two salons had barely rebounded when 2021 arrived in “one of the worst” stretches of time as the pandemic continued.
“It was a lot of everything” said Whiffen, who oversees the Shallowford Falls salon.
“People weren’t coming back to work so they didn’t need a haircut as much,” she said. And there were those who were still feeling apprehensive about returning to closed indoor spaces.
“Some couldn’t wait to get back, but others weren’t so sure, Whiffen explained. “We tried to do curbside service as much as possible.”
Along the way, Zéba used the occasion to assess many aspects of the business.
“The biggest blessing was that it helped us re-establish our culture,” Whiffen said. “We needed to care care of these people [their employees].”
Along the way, a “better family dynamic” emerged, and there was the usual turnover that is standard in the hair-care industry. Zéba currently employs around 25 people at both locations.
More than anything, Whiffen said, she and Abbasi saw their employees and clients in a new way.
“It was cool to see how much you impact their lives,” Whiffen said. “We’re super fortunate that our new clients are more now that we have ever had. And the trends have completely changed.”
Among them are what Whiffen calls lived-in haircoloring that lasts longer and grows softer.
“A lot of pe0ple just want a more natural look,” she said.
She said some clients also come to get hair care less than before, but their appointments tend to last longer.
Zéba also has become dedicated to recycling many of its products, including shampoos and coloring materials, hiring a private service that does come with a cost.
“But people love it,” Abbasi said. “They care about the environment.”
The salons have several events during the year to help local charities, donating 10 percent of proceeds on a Saturday in the spring to the Atlanta Humane Society, and another Saturday in the fall to benefit MUST Ministries.
Zéba also invites women from a local homeless shelter to help themselves to shampoos and other products that are no longer for sale.
Zéba continues its emphasis on education for its staffers and especially its colorists, with the aim of helping them understand the broader dynamics of the business.
“It’s not just about doing hair,” Abbasi said. “It’s everything. It’s connecting with people.”
As her business passed a milestone, she said she attests Zéba’s staying power to “a lot of faith and hard work and persistence.
“I just want us to be better today than we were yesterday.”
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