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.”
Commissioners rezoned the land in early 2018, with plenty of community support. The $120 million project was developed by Eden Rock Real Estate Partners, with two restaurants set to open soon that will fill up all the space at MarketPlace Terrell Mill.
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.)
Kroger officials handed checks to organizations that help to feed those in need, including its own Zero Hunger, Zero Waste Foundation.
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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