The long-planned Riverview Landing development along the Chattahoochee River has officially added a trio of restaurants to its lineup.
Grand Champion BBQ, Chattahoochee Coffee Co. and Reformation Brewing will be added to the project, which will also include hundreds of housing units and a 12-acre public park, the first of which are scheduled to open as early as August.
Rendering from the City of Smyrna website
Chattahoochee Coffee will open as part of the leasing center, while Grand Champion and Reformation will share a 3,400-square-foot space. Chuck Young, a partner with Prestwick Development Co., said the brewery came on board first, followed by the restaurant.
“We really wanted a food partner to compliment the brewery, because barbecue and beer sounds pretty good to me,” said Young, who also lives in Smyrna. “We looked at a bunch of similar concepts but ultimately felt Grand Champion was the best. They were looking for growth opportunities, and once they got here they fell in love with it.”
It’s good news for a project a decade in the works.
Riverview Landing dates to 2009 and has changed shape several times. It’s an 82-acre project under construction on Riverview Road in Cobb County, across the river from Fulton County. Originally the property was in unincorporated Cobb County, but in 2013 was annexed into the City of Smyrna.
“I don’t think the average Smyrnan understands that we’re a riverfront community, but they’re going to shortly,” said Smyrna councilman Ron Fennel during a city council meeting April 15. “I’m looking forward to a big splash when they get to see that through this development.”
Rendering from the City of Smyrna website
Reformation Brewery was founded in 2013 in Woodstock, while Grand Champion BBQ has locations in Roswell, Shallowford, Milton, Marietta and Atlanta. Chattahoochee Coffee Co. currently operates two locations, one at Walton Westside in Atlanta and the other — also along the river — at Walton on the Chattahoochee. Both are inside apartment complexes.
The Eddy will offer one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 632 to 1,435 square feet, with rents starting at $1,150 per month.
By a 6-0 vote of the Smyrna city council April 15, Riverview Landing also once again changed its lineup of housing units. The most recent change increases the number of planned apartments (from 310 to 580) while reducing the number of townhomes (233 to 188) and detached houses (65 to 48). In total, Riverview will increase from 608 to 816 housing units.
Retail space is also set to increase, from 3,400 square feet to 17,680 in the second phase.
“We have five times the commercial we had the last time we came before you in 2017, and we’re quite proud of that because it’s all river-driven commercial,” said Garvis Sams, the attorney representing the developers, during the city council meeting. “It’s really cutting edge. This is almost new urbanistic in terms of leveraging the river.”
Young said the search is on for the next phase of retailers, which could include anything from a convenience store to a high-end furniture outlet, restaurant or outdoor clothing supplier.
Put a sprouts there.
From my point of view a Sprouts would be nice (I could actually walk to pick up groceries) but Riverview Landing is so close to the one at South Cobb Drive and the East West Connector that convincing Sprouts to do it would probably be a hard sell.
Looks really nice, but oh man, the traffic. And I predict many car break ins.
Depending on the amount of foot traffic my own prediction is that there will be somewhat fewer car breakins than at the subdivisions along Oakdale Road, and a lot fewer than at Cumberland Mall.
I could be wrong, but here’s my reasoning:
What makes the complexes along Oakdale Road so attractive to thieves is that during the day most people in the homes are working, and at night few people are outside.
It’s also a large cluster of subdivisions near I-285 and fairly close to I-20, and when I’ve covered auto breakins in magistrate court, the small groups of people doing them came and left by auto, not on foot.
Riverview Landing is certainly near I-285, but it’s the only cluster of residences there (so far), and the commercial component should generate enough non-criminal foot traffic to make it a not-as-attractive target.
Will there be auto breakins? Certainly. I just predict there will be fewer than on Oakdale Road, and certainly fewer than Cumberland Mall, where two major expressways, a state highway, and several arterials make entry and exit fast and easy.
We’ll know in a few years.
Any chance we’ll see more shops and restaurants in this area similar to what you find on the Marietta See (i.e. more local and unique than big chain or big box retailers)?
The three businesses that were mentioned in this article seem to be a good start.
We do get locally owned restaurants from time to time (Cafe Social House, African Delights, Isabellas, Cenacle, Sabores, Taco Prado, etc.) I think at this point patronizing the ones we have is a good start, but it would be nice to attract more entrepreneurs with interesting ideas to South Cobb.