East Cobb's Shopping Centers Are Filling Up With Places to Play

"This isn't just for high-end pickleball players," East Cobb entrepreneur Jay Mathis said in East Cobb News after Cobb commissioners approved his plan for the old Walmart grocery at Olde Mill Shopping Center. "This is something for the whole family to do."

In 2026, the spaces opening up along Roswell Road, Johnson Ferry Road and Lower Roswell Road keep going to golf bays, pickleball courts, sports bars and studios. Meanwhile, some of the area's longest-running local shops and restaurants are counting down their leases. For anyone running holiday errands this season, the shopping centers look the same from the road. Inside, many now sell time instead of goods.

A grocery store becomes 12 courts

The clearest example sits at Roswell and Old Canton roads. The Walmart Neighborhood Market that anchored Olde Mill Shopping Center closed more than two years ago. As East Cobb News reported in September, the outlet had been fielding reader questions about the empty space ever since.

The 46,761-square-foot box is becoming The Pickle Pad and Crave Social Eatery, a pair of franchise "social destination" concepts already open in Tallahassee, Florida, and Port Arthur, Texas. The September filing described:

• 12 pickleball courts
• Four golf simulators in the back of the venue
• Special games and an arcade
• A kitchen and bar
• Hours of 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week

The zoning path took some work. The applicant asked to rezone the site from Neighborhood Retail Commercial to Community Activity Center. Commissioners instead kept the neighborhood retail category and approved, by a 4-0 vote, a stipulation adding an indoor sports facility as an allowed use. The building is still zoned as neighborhood retail on paper, with courts permitted inside.

Mathis has said he wants to open by January. The East Cobb location is the first of four he plans in metro Atlanta. The others are in Kennesaw, at The Battery and near Perimeter Mall.

Merchants Exchange, one parking lot, three departures and a golf studio

Merchants Exchange on Johnson Ferry Road shows the same shift on a smaller footprint. According to East Cobb News, the center's three largest tenants are all leaving.

Those three departing tenants filled about 74,300 square feet together. Back Nine Golf, the newest arrival, works at a much smaller scale. It is the second location for a business that started in Midtown Atlanta. The studio uses Full Swing simulators, the same ones used on the PGA Tour, in three private bays available around the clock. Owner Andy Crowe told East Cobb News that golfers don't need a membership to book. When the opening was announced in October, founding memberships were priced at $196 a month for the Birdie tier and $236 for the Eagle tier, down from regular rates of $245 and $295, with 25 spots per tier.

A 24-hour golf studio fits the way the center is changing. Two of the departing tenants were themselves places people went to do something, a gym and a dance studio. The new tenant keeps that use in a format built around a booked hour in a private bay.

Casabella's last Christmas on Johnson Ferry

Casabella is the departure many shoppers will feel at the register. Cathy Linton, who has owned the home store since 2014, announced that the lease on the space Casabella has rented for 24 years will not be renewed when it expires in September 2027. She said in a video message that the landlord is "looking to put a national chain in our location." East Cobb News reported that no new tenant has been named for the space.

The store is open through the holidays. It sells lamps, art, mirrors, furniture, clothing, jewelry, collegiate gear, mahjong sets and gifts, much of it from local makers. "Local mom, local mom, local mom, local mom," Linton told the outlet in an earlier profile, pointing along her shelves. All sales have been final since Nov. 1.

"This will be our last Christmas in this location and we would love to celebrate with you," Linton said. Whether Casabella closes, moves or sells is still undecided. "We're going to get through Christmas and then we'll figure out what's next," she told East Cobb News.

The same swap, a few miles away

The pattern reaches beyond the two biggest boxes.

At Stonewood Village, 4719 Lower Roswell Road, Sidelines Grille was sold about two and a half years after it opened in March 2024. A sign on the door announced that Scoreboard Social, a Naples, Florida-based sports bar, would take over the space in November. Its menu is similar to Sidelines', with sports bar standards, steaks, chicken, seafood and a kids menu. East Cobb News' Nov. 4 food scores list a pre-opening health inspection on Nov. 5 that scored 100.

At Market Plaza on Johnson Ferry Road, JETSET Pilates, owned by Nicole O'Connell and Taylor Willis, scheduled its grand-opening event for Oct. 25. Earlier this year, Market Plaza lost Reunion Kitchen and Bar, which had opened in the former Red Sky Tapas space. In announcing the move, the restaurant cited "the continued rise in rent and operating costs," according to East Cobb News. Owner Ilene Oxman told What Now Atlanta that she was looking for a new site in Sandy Springs.

At Woodlawn Square, Urthy founder Jen Rotondo is closing her body- and skincare boutique and its online store nearly three years after opening, with sales underway on the remaining stock.

East Cobb Station already tried this

None of this is new for East Cobb Station, the Roswell Road center near the Big Chicken that opened in 1958 as Town and Country Shopping Center. In an April editor's note, East Cobb News described a center that had been "practically empty" in recent years. Planet Fitness held on as one of its few tenants, and the building that once held the Woolco is now home to Andretti Indoor Karting & Games.

Hendon Properties bought the center in 2024 and is now adding tenants around those uses. The lineup includes a Lidl grocery as anchor, the return of Burlington, a Hibbett Sports and a 7 Brew coffee stand. The editor's note describes these stores as appealing "to shoppers of a variety of income levels." At East Cobb Station, karting and a gym held the center together until new retail arrived. Olde Mill and Merchants Exchange are now going through their own versions of that change.

Where to play, and when

The holiday dates still on the calendar

The traditional holiday events in East Cobb are still centered on shopping, and most are within a few miles of the centers above:

1. Friday, Nov. 20, 5 to 7 p.m. Avenue East Cobb and East Cobb Church host the tree lighting. Activities start at 5 p.m., Santa arrives at 6:45 p.m., and then the 26-foot tree is lit.
2. Nov. 21 through Dec. 24. Santa photos at Avenue East Cobb, in the family lounge beside Panera Bread.
3. Friday, Nov. 27, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Black Friday shopping hours at Avenue East Cobb.
4. Dec. 2, 9 and 16, at 3, 4 and 5 p.m. Santa storytimes at Avenue East Cobb, $15 per child, with proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity Northwest Atlanta.
5. Dec. 3, 10 and 17, 6 p.m. Holiday movie screenings in The Plaza at Avenue East Cobb.
6. Dec. 4 to 6. The Cobb PARKS Holiday Artisan Market at the Cobb County Civic Center, 548 South Marietta Parkway SE. The Merry Marketplace for makers ages 10 to 17 runs Saturday, Dec. 5.
7. Sunday, Dec. 6, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Avenue East Cobb and Chabad of Cobb hold a menorah lighting with family activities and a fire department gelt drop.
8. Sunday, Dec. 6, 5 p.m. Cobb County lists Holiday Lights at East Cobb Park, 3322 Roswell Road.

From Avenue East Cobb, Casabella at Merchants Exchange is a short drive up Johnson Ferry Road, and the store is open through Christmas.

At SET Real Estate Group, we follow tenant changes at East Cobb's shopping centers block by block. If you'd like to know how a nearby center's next tenant could affect your corner of the neighborhood, we're happy to talk it through.