The Macy’s at Greenbriar Mall is Closing and That Might Be a Big Deal

In 1998, on the song “The Damm” from Goodie Mob’s sophomore album Still Standing, it was “Headland Hustler” and Dungeon Family member Cool Breeze’s “next stop.”  

In 2003, Ludacris shared that he was considering purchasing the entire property, before telling any listening critics downplaying his position of financial power that they could “Blow it Out” of their asses.

In 2006, it was where Young Dro let his wheels spin, screens fall, and trunk beat as he bounced right to left and let his “Shoulder Lean.”

And lest we forget, it was where in 1991, Jermaine Dupri discovered Kris Kross.

Today, Greenbriar Mall is where a lot of attention is being paid, because very soon the fledgling retail giant Macy’s will not be paying rent. In the first week of January, the company confirmed that Greenbriar’s store will officially be included in a group of locations it decided to shut down last year.  

The closing is one of 36 that will happen during the spring season, if not sooner. Bill Torpy at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote a lengthy piece on it (read it here).

Macy’s Chairman and CEO Jeff Gennette tried to help investors and media see the upside in a quarterly earnings call last September. “Retail today has been disrupted. And while that disruption creates challenges, it also holds opportunity. With many competitors closing or struggling, we see the potential to bring new customers into our brands and gain market share.”

This would be more believable if we still lived in a time where department stores were a thing. But not only has retail suffered quite a bit since the rise of Amazon and online shopping in general, but yes, there’s still a pandemic that has officially taken 400,000 lives in less than a year. 

From a high level, one could reason that there’s no reason Greenbriar would have to shutter — the community should be able to support a major retail center, and apparently has done just that, although it’s mostly been for Foot Locker.

Here’s some quick information on Greenbriar, per Hendon Properties’ website:

Also per Hendon: The population in the 7-mile radius around Greenbriar is just above 278,000. During the daytime, that population only drops by about 95k. There are almost 116k households in that radius, and the average household income is close to $56,000 per year.

But if you’ve been to Greenbriar lately, you know it is far from Phipps Plaza or Lenox Mall. It may not have the violence we’ve seen in viral videos since 2020 (ain’t that ironic), but it also doesn’t have brands like Tom Ford, or even Armani Exchange. It has lots of kiosks selling gold chains, plenty of independent streetwear shops, and hella sneaker stores.

Oh, there is the fact that Greenbriar is still the home of the world’s first Chick-Fil-A, but is that history enough to make the Cathy family care about investing in an almost-60-year-old shopping mall?

Just to level-set, this landmark, beloved by not only Ludacris, Young Dro and Kris Kross but countless shoppers living near or visiting southwest Atlanta’s Ben Hill community, may be about to undergo a major change, and that will have major ramifications not only for the SWATS, but the entire city and its identity. 

One immediate question (aside from “Will enough people still buy sneakers at the 8 million shoe stores to keep Greenbriar alive?”), is what will happen to the $42 million Briarwood mixed-use development planned for the area directly across the street from Greenbriar. We don’t know!

Losing an “anchor” tenant like Macy’s, no matter how Greenbriar’s parent company Hendon Properties may spin it, is not good for a space with 807,697 square feet on 94 acres that could end up sitting empty for years. 

TL;DR: Better hit that store closing sale ASAP and scrape up that investment money!

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This story is developing; we’ll continue to watch for updates and share insights here at Butter.ATL.