Atlantic Station has a new company running its stores, restaurants and daily operations, and the change comes as the 138-acre Midtown development tries to reset its retail lineup and its reputation. Fort Worth-based Trademark Property Company took over management, leasing and operations of the site on August 1, and it has already hired a familiar face to lead the effort: Sean McIntosh, who previously served as Atlantic Station's assistant general manager from 2006 to 2013, is back as general manager.
Trademark managing principal Terry Montesi framed the new ownership's approach around listening first. “Our first step is listening and understanding the community,” Montesi said, as reported by CBS News Atlanta. McIntosh is expected to meet with Atlantic Station tenants and residents of surrounding neighborhoods, and the company plans to launch a community survey as part of that outreach, according to the station. Trademark also plans to hire a senior asset manager based in Atlanta to oversee the property going forward.
The management shift traces back to the property's institutional owners. Atlantic Station's commercial real estate is owned by Houston-based Hines in a joint venture with a Morgan Stanley investment fund, which acquired the retail core in October 2015 for roughly $195 million to $200 million, according to Rough Draft Atlanta. Hines had originally purchased the retail core from North American Properties and CBRE Global Investors. Trademark itself is a mixed-use specialist, managing 19 properties nationwide totaling 24 million square feet, including Galleria Dallas and Market Street–The Woodlands, per Urbanize Atlanta.
New Anchors Fill Empty Storefronts
The retail overhaul is already visible in the roughly 586,000 square feet of retail space that make up the center. Off-price retailer Nordstrom Rack is set to open a 28,000-square-foot store on October 29, taking over the space DSW Shoes vacated in January after 20 years at the property, per the same account from Rough Draft Atlanta.
Historic soul food institution Busy Bee Cafe, founded in Vine City in 1947 and a 2022 James Beard America's Classics Award winner, is preparing to open a second location with a full bar and patio in the center's former Fanatics space. The move comes ahead of a planned third Busy Bee location at Downtown Atlanta's Centennial Yards, according to Atlanta Magazine. The chain's original MLK Jr. Drive site operates primarily as a takeout spot. Celebrity chef Gocha Hawkins is also bringing Gocha's All Day, a 5,350-square-foot concept merging her breakfast and tapas bars with weekend live entertainment, while health-focused chain Playa Bowls is adding a 1,275-square-foot shop, according to What Now Atlanta. Atlantic Station says it will keep running its established programming, including Light the Station, Wellness Wednesdays and the Creator's Market.
Filling the Publix-Sized Hole
The incoming retail wave follows the loss of Atlantic Station's longtime grocery anchor. Publix, which had served the neighborhood since 2005, closed on December 27 after two decades in business, leaving a 30,000-square-foot vacancy and fueling neighborhood petition efforts for a replacement grocer, per FOX 5 Atlanta. Hoodline previously reported that residents rallied against the closure and then petitioned for a Trader Joe's to take its place. Whether a new grocer is part of Trademark's plans has not been announced.
Office tenants have also been drifting away from the complex even as its residential reputation has climbed. Ranking site Niche named Atlantic Station the No. 1 neighborhood to live in nationwide in March, even as litigation firm Kabat Chapman & Ozmer left the complex for core Midtown's 14th & Spring tower earlier this summer, Urbanize Atlanta reported. Hoodline covered that departure in a June report on the firm ditching Atlantic Station.
Safety Concerns Loom Over the Turnaround
Trademark's arrival also follows a stretch of public safety trouble at the property. In December, a crowd of up to 400 teenagers set off fireworks and gunfire at Atlantic Station, resulting in the detention of five juveniles, Hoodline reported at the time, with city leaders and police urging greater parental oversight afterward. Then in July, a late-night fight at the property escalated into gunfire that left a 28-year-old man shot, according to Hoodline's coverage of that late-night shooting. Those incidents form part of the backdrop against which Trademark is now pitching community listening sessions and a tenant survey.
Atlantic Station opened in 2005 on the former site of the Atlantic Steel mill, which operated from 1901 to 1998, and its redevelopment stands as one of the largest urban brownfield reclamation projects in U.S. history, according to Urbanize Atlanta's October 2025 retrospective. The cleanup required removing 165,000 tons of contaminated soil and building the 17th Street Bridge. Two decades later, the 138-acre site still draws an estimated 11 million visitors a year and sits beside a stretch of Interstate 75/85 carrying nearly 578,000 vehicles daily, per figures from Hines and Atlantic Station Leasing. With that kind of traffic and visibility, Trademark's new leadership team is betting that a refreshed retail mix, familiar management and direct community input can steady a property that has drawn as much attention for its problems this year as for its progress.
