Atlanta's Redevelopment Specialists Grapple With Gentrification Pushback

Developer Edens has revealed the first look at its vision to redevelop an ailing suburban Atlanta mall into apartments, townhomes, a hotel, shops, restaurants and pocket parks. Edens unveiled long-anticipated renderings Tuesday evening during an online presentation that shows the fate of the 622K SF, 58-year-old enclosed mall, the…

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Hemant Chavan was working as a development executive in New York City when the pandemic set in, and before long, he sensed opportunity.

Like many commercial real estate professionals in the last two years, Chavan, a development director at luxury residential developer Gemdale, was dealing with Zoom fatigue, saw a hunger for pandemic-era shoppers to get out and travel and experience real life after years of limited interactions. The Indian American businessman also saw the pandemic accelerating so much technology around him — virtual building tours, rental leasing, construction management software. 

“Anything that makes your job easier or takes away redundancy, technology will take over that space,” he said. “Software is going to eat everything.” 

Those market hunches, and a feeling that it was time to break off and start something on his own, led him to found Brik + Clik, an experiential retail store that curates a selection of direct-to-consumer brands. After successfully launching in 2020 with locations in San Francisco, New York City’s Oculus and Los Angeles, he now has eight employees and plans to open three to five new stores this year, with a funding round set to close in the coming months. 

“This was the right time,” he said of starting a retail business during a pandemic that brought store traffic to a standstill. “You can take some risk and bootstrap knowing physical spaces do come back.”

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The onset of the coronavirus pandemic prompted the U.S. at large to shelter in place. Events were canceled and offices shifted to remote work, leaving few reasons to dress up. 

That was bad news for dry cleaners. 

In 2020, those retailers saw their business drop as much as 80%, Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute CEO Mary Scalco told Bisnow. 

“It was huge,” Scalco said. 

Two years later, as events have returned and the U.S. workforce trickles back into the office, Scalco says most dry cleaners in her 6,000-member national group are within 20% of their 2019 business levels, with many adopting new business practices, like delivery options, to lure back customers. 

As these businesses get back on pre-pandemic footing, there is a clear factor for those struggling the most: location.

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With multifamily rents having shot into the stratosphere in virtually every U.S. market, there has never been more capital seeking to invest in the sector. Among all that competition, those seeking value-add investments are hard-pressed to make such deals live up to their name.

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Senior housing facilities are locked in competition to attract workers from a meager pipeline, and the issue is affecting where the next generation of projects will be built.

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