Town Center at Cobb

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This article is about the shopping mall in Georgia. For the mall of a similar name in Florida, see Town Center at Boca Raton.

Town Center at Cobb (often called Town Center Mall), is a regional shopping mall located in Kennesaw, Georgia near Atlanta. Opened in late February 1986, the mall was originally anchored by Rich's, Macy's and Sears. The Macy's store was the first in Atlanta not to have originally been part of the Atlanta-based Davison's chain, which Macy's eliminated after owning it since 1929. The largest mall in the state when it opened, a fourth anchor, Mervyn's, joined the mall later in 1986.

Town Center is part of a major retail hub in northern Cobb County, Georgia along Barrett Parkway. It is located between parallel parts of I-75 and I-575, just north of where the interstates meet or split from each other. The mall itself has seen several significant changes over the years. Built with a pad for an additional wing, a new wing extending north from the east wing was finally added in 1993 with a Parisian department store, the first to open in the Atlanta area. This brought the store count at the mall up to 220 stores and the amount of anchor store up to five. No other mall in the state had five anchors at the time except for North Point Mall, which opened also in 1993.

Enormously successful and drawing away customers that originally shopped at older Cumberland and Cobb Center Malls, the mall was first renovated in 1995 but has never been expanded aside from the Parisian addition. Store consolidations and retractions, however, have shaken up the anchor line-up in recent years. First, in 1996, JCPenney took over the former location of Mervyn's, which pulled out of Georgia in late 1995. Second, Rich's and Macy's were merged into one store, prompting the closure of the three-story Macy's that had been there since opening. However, part of the store was refurbished and is now used as a Macy's Furniture Gallery (originally a Rich's-Macy's Furniture Gallery). Macy's now occupies the former Rich's.

Occupancy rates remain very high at the mall, and most major chain specialty stores are found in the mall. However, the mall is facing competition from all the big box stores on Barrett Parkway, two "lifestyle centers" that opened up on each end of the county and more upscale malls such as Lenox Square. However, no plans currently are known to make any major changes to the mall. Changes in anchors, however, are likely to continue in 2006 as Parisian will be bought out by Belk.

[edit] Anchors

JCPenney (82,000 sq. ft., northwest wing)
Macy's (238,000 sq. ft., former Rich's, east wing)
Macy's Furniture
Parisian (128,819 sq. ft., becoming Belk in 2007, northeast wing)
Sears (170,527 sq. ft., west wing)

[edit] Adjacent shopping centers

Cobb Place was the first "satellite" strip mall to open around Town Center.
Town Center Oaks is located just southwest, on the opposite side of Busbee Parkway. It currently has a Happy China restaurant (one of its original tenants), Bird Watcher Supply Company (a local birdwatching chain), and others. It previously had a Taco Mac and Dick Blick; a Thomasville Furniture store moved to Cobb Place.
Further north (across Noonday Creek) on Busbee is a Garden Ridge, a PGA Superstore in half of a not-that-old Wal-Mart, a new BrandsMart USA, an indoor ice rink, a defunct go-kart course, and others on the west side of the street, up against I-75. On the east side are two small strip malls, including Petland and others. Another still-empty shopping center has been built on the southwest corner of Busbee Parkway at Chastain Road, replacing retain space lost when Kennesaw State University's continuing education department took-over a former outlet mall on the southwest corner of the original route of Busbee Drive at Chastain.
Another large strip mall is located across Barrett Parkway, and has Michaels, Marshall's (originally Branden's), and TJ Maxx as its major stores. Two outparcels contain an Olive Garden restaurant, and a new Verizon Wirelesss store which, along with some still-ampty new stores, recently replaced a Three Dollar Cafe which moved-in to what was originally a Sizzler. Behind this is a Toys R Us and an early strip mall nationally-known tenants. Further down Roberts Road (the original route before Barrett Parkway) is Home Depot and a 1950s-era home that is the last holdout to land development.
Town Center Esplanade is a two-story shopping center fronting Barrett Parkway on the upper level and facing Town Center on the lower level. Major tenants include Kinko's and others. Several restaurants are also located together just behind it.
Town Center Prado is located on the northwest corner of Bell's Ferry and Barrett, and contains Publix, Stein Mart, Ross Dress for Less, Famous Footwear (formerly Gateway Country Store), Hallmark, Pier 1, and Party City.
An earlier shopping center on the northwest corner of Barrett and Chastain Meadows Parkway originally had a movie theatre, Drug Emporium, and Levitz. The Levitz wing was demolished and the center extended further north, and includes a new Super Wal-Mart, as well as Game Stop, Dollar Tree, Payless Shoes, and others.
An old shopping center on the southwest corner of Bell's Ferry and Barrett pre-dates everything else in the area. On the southeast corner (where Barrett becomes Piedmont Road) is a new CVS/pharmacy and others to be built behind it. This is the eastern extent of the commercial district.
A newer shopping center is located on the south side of Barrett east of I-575, and has a Moe's Southwest Grill and Washington Mutual, among others.