Gateway Mall

Hooker plans 4-6 anchors for Gateway Mall project. (LJ Hooker Developments).
Daily News Record 18.n90 (May 10, 1988): p.p15(1). (421 words)
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Full Text :COPYRIGHT 1988 Fairchild Publications, Inc.
Hooker Plans 4-6 Anchors For Gateway Mall Project ATLANTA -- LJ Hooker Developments detailed plans for its Gateway Fashion Mall, a 1.2-million-square-foot shopping center that is part of the second phase of the Atlanta-based company's midtown Atlanta mixed-use project.

Scheduled to open in fall 1990, Gateway Fashion Mall will have at least four major anchor stores or as many as six, according to Boyd Simpson, president of LJ Hooker Developments. The three-level mall will also have abouit 150 smaller shops, a food court, restaurants, a cinema, and a 10,000-square-foot legitimate theater that will fit in with the midtown area's focus on the arts.

While Hooker did not announce which stores will anchor the mall, Simpson said that several stores had expressed an interest in anchor positions -- "more than we have space for," he noted. Possible candidates would be retailers owned by the LJ Hooker Retail Group. These are Bonwit Teller, B. Altman's, Sakowitz, and Parisian. The Hooker Retail Group, which also owns Merksamer Jewelers, was formed in the fall of 1987.

"It's probable that some of these retailers will be Gateway anchors," Simpson said. He added that he expects a decision to be made on the anchor mix before construction begins in late summer. He said that formal announcements regarding the anchor stores would be made "with the respective retailers once the anchor mix is fully resolved."

He said, too, that he expects no difficulty in leasing the 425,000 square feet of small store space. "Atlanta is attractive to both the smaller regional and the larger national retail chains becuase it's the 10th-largest market in the nation and they want to be here. Midtown's appeal is its new 'heart' and status."

The shopping mall will lie between two high-rise ofice buildings, both of which will have their own parking decks. One is a 49-floor, 1.2-million-square-foot tower and the other is a 21-floor, 500,000-square-foot building. The total complex will blend office, residential, retail and hotel space on 19-acre site in the midtown area.

Thompson Venulett Stainback & Associates, an Atlanta-based architectural firm, created the preliminary conceptual design for the mall. Simpson called the design "a spectacular open and airy galleria with elegant finishes." The interior detailing will include sculptured columns and railings, pendant chandeliers, pools and a water cascade.

LJ Hooker Developments began assembling parcels of land for the Gateway project in the early 1980s before the midtown building boom began, the company said. Simpson said that Gateway Center has been a favored project of Hooker Corp.'s executive chairman, George Herscu.