Developers Get Approval To Turn Mall Into NHL Arena. Now All They Need Is A Team

The path is clear for a downtrodden mall in a suburb of Atlanta to be torn down and replaced with a massive development anchored by a pro hockey arena.

The Alpharetta City Council this week voted 4-3 to rezone nearly 100 acres, including North Point Mall, to allow a 20,000-seat hockey arena, 1,385 apartment units, a 4,000-seat music hall and performing arts center, 650 hotel rooms and a 35K SF conference center, 750K SF of office, 565K SF of retail and 20 acres of public parks, plazas and multi-use trails. 

There is one big potential holdup: The National Hockey League hasn’t announced any planned expansion team, let alone whether Atlanta would be a target city. The project is contingent on landing an NHL team.

The mall is owned by New York Life Insurance Co., while the redevelopment is being spearheaded by Jamestown, which developed and owns Ponce City Market, and Machete Group, neither of which has a financial stake in the property.

A portion of the rezoning that would permit for-rent housing would be revoked if developers fail to break ground on their construction or the NHL doesn’t approve a new hockey team at the project by Aug. 24, 2031, according to the master development plan approved by the city.

Local opposition to rental apartments is why a previous redevelopment plan for the mall was rejected and contributed to the split vote Monday.

Now, with entitlements in place, the development partners are pushing forward on honing the design and plans for the project, as well as furthering discussions with potential ownership groups that would be able to pony up the billions required to bring an expansion NHL team to Atlanta, Machete Group Managing Partner David Carlock told Bisnow.

“We’re in discussions with a handful of folks who have expressed interest and have the means to be part of the group,” Carlock said in a phone interview Wednesday.

“We’re optimistic. Getting through the vote on Monday has now put us in place” to prioritize those efforts, he added, while noting that there is no timetable set.

While he declined to disclose a total cost for the mixed-use development, Carlock said the arena alone could cost upward of $1.5B.

The approval “positions North Point to become a regional, year-round destination for professional sports, entertainment, and mixed-use experiences, while bringing substantial investment, economic impact, and community benefit,” Jamestown Chief Investment Officer Tim Perry said in a statement. 

The North Point Mall project is one of two competing local visions for an NHL-based mixed-use destination. Forsyth County in June approved a plan led by car dealership owner Vernon Krause for a $3B mixed-use project with an 18,500-seat, NHL-ready stadium in the southern portion of the county.

Carlock said North Point is better positioned to host the arena because it is closer to Atlanta’s core while being situated in an area that already has a sizable corporate presence and more population density. He added that North Point has more ingress and egress points and two existing parking decks that could save the developers around $100M in costs. 

“The fact that we’re that much closer to more people, more household income and more of a corporate base, that will drive the success,” Carlock said. “We have a lot of respect for Vernon [Krause], and we wish him the best. Whatever happens here happens.”

But both projects are vying for a mere chance at a team. While Atlanta has been home to two previous NHL teams — the Flames and the Thrashers, both of which decamped to other cities — the league hasn’t said it plans to expand back to Georgia.

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told The Hockey News last week that the league was in “serious discussions” with an ownership group that would bring an NHL team to Houston or Austin.

But rumors that Metro Atlanta is in the NHL’s crosshairs continue to pop up. Earlier this month, prominent NHL player agent Allan Walsh said in a post on X, “NHL expansion is coming. Houston and Atlanta.”

NHL sports reporter and insider Elliotte Friedman said on a podcast this week that the NHL will announce two expansion teams before the league’s TV deal expires in two years, pegging Houston and Atlanta as the favorites.

A new owner would likely have to pay a roughly $2B expansion fee to become the league’s 33rd or 34th team, Perry told the Atlanta Business Chronicle earlier this month.

But if it were to happen, it would represent a stunning turnaround for North Point Mall. 

On the east side of Georgia 400, the property was developed by Homart Development Co., a subsidiary of Sears, in 1993. It rapidly became the retail juggernaut of the affluent Alpharetta and North Fulton County region. But shopping in the county shifted to the luxury, walkable mixed-use Avalon project on the west side of Georgia 400. Then the pandemic hit.

Rather than pay off the $202M loan tied to North Point Mall in 2021, Brookfield Property Partners handed it over to its lender, New York Life, in a deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure transaction. 

Since then, the insurance giant has been working on a redevelopment vision for the 1.3M SF mall. Carlock said that, for now, all of the developers’ eggs are in the NHL’s basket. 

“There is no specific Plan B,” Carlock said. “It’s a terrific site, and no matter what, North Point Mall should be redeveloped. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”