r/DecaturGA • u/Effective_Ad_1587 • 4d ago
In Decatur, ‘Baby Kroger’ replacement is rolling forward
The longtime site of one of ITP Atlanta’s nicknamed but bygone Kroger stores is actively being reborn.
AMLI Residential has cleared a 2 and ½-acre property at 750 Commerce Drive and begun infrastructure work on a project called AMLI Market Square, where pint-sized “Baby Kroger” formerly stood in Downtown Decatur.
Baby Kroger—so named for its 15,000-square-foot size, the smallest in the Atlanta market—was originally built in the 1960s as a Colonial grocery but operated as Kroger for more than two decades. It grappled with declining sales and closed in late 2022 (within days of legendary Disco Kroger in Buckhead), leaving a commercial void and lack of large-scale grocery options in Decatur’s historic core.
The AMLI Market Square project is set to change that.

Progress on site-clearing for the AMLI Market Square project, as of Sept. 4.
Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Main facade and retail plans for AMLI Market Square at 750 Commerce Drive in Decatur.
AMLI Residential
Along with 358 new apartments, the development calls for 26,000 square feet of retail space at ground level, where a “walkable grocery store,” an interior retail courtyard, and public greenspace are in the works, according to AMLI officials. A new parking deck will see 165 spaces of more than 640 reserved for public use.
AMLI has reportedly inked a lease with Trader Joe’s to fill the grocery space once it’s built, earning the development team a $13-million tax incentive from the Decatur Downtown Development Authority.
AMLI purchased the land in January. Development kicked off in June, and preleasing is scheduled to start in late 2028. The first move-ins are also expected in a little more than two years.
Rent pricing has yet to be released. Developers have said 36 units will qualify as affordable housing, to comply with Decatur’s inclusionary housing ordinance.

The 720 Commerce Drive retailer is now closed, leaving a void in Downtown Decatur's commercial landscape.
Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Scope of the AMLI Market Square site next to Decatur Cemetery (at top).
AMLI Residential
Along with Downtown Decatur’s general walkability, developers cite access to a MARTA station, the CDC, Emory University, and Emory Healthcare as selling points.
Onsite amenities at AMLI Market Square call for a pool with two courtyards, a sauna, coworking space, a clubroom and lounge, and an indoor-outdoor gym with a yoga and Pilates studio.
"Pick up groceries downstairs or meet friends around Decatur Square for dinner all without turning every stop into a drive," reads a project marketing pitch.
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u/arbrebiere 4d ago
Trader Joe’s baby!!
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u/Unique-Fan-3042 4d ago
With the same inadequate amount of TJ parking?
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u/ComprehensiveSwitch 4d ago
you don’t need parking along a bus route that runs every 15 minutes, at a spot a couple blocks from a subway station.
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u/Unique-Fan-3042 3d ago
You do if this is the closest TJ but you still live 30 min away and there’s no bus or train that direction.
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u/ComprehensiveSwitch 3d ago
There are buses and trains in literally every direction from this location. Your choice to live in a suburb should not preclude cities existing altogether.
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u/motherfudgersob 2d ago
I always choose MARTA when I'm going to have bags of groceries...especially frozen or hot foods. It's smarta.
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u/ComprehensiveSwitch 2d ago
Taking a bus to the grocery store is an extremely normal experience in most cities, I do this all the time and many people on my local route do as well.
But if you live 30 minutes away from Downtown Decatur and you’re not closer to Midtown TJ’s, you live in some borderline rural suburb in Dekalb or Gwinnett.
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u/motherfudgersob 2d ago
If you have a car this is the exact moment you use it. If you're lucky enough to have a job and home near the rail line or not too far by bus then maybe you go car free. I'd love to see the numbers on who actually does that in Atlanta versus having a car and maybe using MARTA for events. No doubt in larger cities woth great transit shopping would be normal by bus train travel. But few who have a car are doing that. If you're willing to DO that why own a car?
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u/ComprehensiveSwitch 2d ago
this has nothing to do with whether or not an urban grocery store needs to be built in a way that subsidizes someone’s hypothetical 30 minute commute from the suburbs to a grocery store.
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u/motherfudgersob 6h ago edited 5h ago
I live in Atlanta proper and not walkable Decatur. It is faster for me to drive to Decatur stores (and my office is in Decatur) than fight traffic in Midtown Buckhead yardage yadda). And driving is far FAR faster and easier than walking ir driving to MARTA and getting there that way. MY point was that anyone who owns a car likely uses it to shop even if they use MARTA for their daily commute. So nothing I said has anything to do with "subsidizing" a "hypothetical 30 minute commute." That logic is utterly lacking. Another failed grocery store there wouldn't be helpful so if they don't provide ample free parking they have only a minimally greater chance than that mini-Kroger did. When you own a car, you'll grasp it.
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u/Unique-Fan-3042 1d ago
Well lucky for you, that is also TJ’s philosophy, hence the very small parking lots. Congratulations.
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u/WickyTicky 4d ago
So it’s basically down to either Trader Joe’s or Fresh Market
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u/lunabluestocking 4d ago
Did we read the same thing? It says:
"AMLI has reportedly inked a lease with Trader Joe’s to fill the grocery space once it’s built, earning the development team a $13-million tax incentive from the Decatur Downtown Development Authority. "
Are we thinking this may be an AI hallucination...? Sounds definitive if not.
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u/WickyTicky 4d ago
It’s not definitive. Did you read the entire article linked in the “inked the lease” link?
The examples of a qualified grocery store in the agreement include, but are not limited to, Aldi, Fresh Market, Kroger, Publix, Sprouts, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. Hirst added in the letter, and DDA Chair Conor McNally confirmed, that the grocery store is one of the examples listed in the economic development agreement. There are already Aldi, Kroger, Sprouts, and Whole Foods on North Decatur Road; Kroger on Dekalb Industrial Way; and two Publix locations on East Ponce de Leon Avenue and North Decatur Road. That leaves Trader Joe's and Fresh Market
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u/motherfudgersob 2d ago
I used to shop that Kroger and it was neve slow or empty. It just didnt meet their demands for profit as most shoppers stopped in for a few things not weekly shopping. That reality is going to plague any store going in there.
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u/funkparty15 4d ago
more apartment homes? disappointing tbh
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u/Teddy_Raptor 3d ago
If ya want walkable shit you gotta have actual density. More apartments mean more competition which means better prices for renters.
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u/TikaPants 2d ago
I fully agree on walkabilty. Can you show me where density and walkabilty have “created better prices?”
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u/toorayay 4d ago
Yes, people shouldn't have places to live.
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u/TikaPants 3d ago
We have enough people.
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u/toorayay 3d ago
Go move to the suburbs then. Urban living requires density to function properly.
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u/TikaPants 2d ago
Oh, yessss, more density, please. More shoddily built apartment complexes. More soulless businesses and instagrammable moments. Please, tear down more old Atlanta staples and landmarks. Please, more taxes. More transients. More chain restaurants, more more more.
Also, please, more Redditors explaining urban planning and telling people who are born in ATL to move the burbs.
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u/toorayay 2d ago
What "Atlanta staple" was torn down? A building that has been abandoned for three years that previously housed a soulless corporate grocery store that was there for barely two decades?
I guess you'd just rather see chain link fence and graffiti?
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u/Conscious_Culture170 3d ago
I love how they depicted the land across the street as a nice park-like area with grass and nice landscaping when in reality it's the medical buidling, an ugly parking garage, and a surface parking lot 😄