The Shops of Dunwoody is about to get a serious glow-up, and the tenant list tells you everything about where suburban retail is headed. JLL just announced four new tenants coming to the shopping center along Chamblee Dunwoody Road, north of Perimeter Mall, and the lineup leans hard into the experiential, wellness-and-dining mix that has been quietly reshaping what a neighborhood strip center looks like.
The incoming roster: Tenku Sushi, Sweat440, Jetset Pilates, and Beyond Juicery + Eatery. Together they account for more than 8,600 square feet of newly leased space, according to Urbanize Atlanta. Sushi, 50-minute reformer Pilates, 40-minute HIIT classes, and a fast-casual juice and wraps concept. Not a single big-box anchor in the bunch. That is the point. All four are expected to open throughout summer and fall 2026.
Why the Former Krog District Owners Are Betting on Dunwoody
Here is the part that made me sit up. Asana Partners, the Charlotte-based real estate firm behind this refresh, previously owned the Krog District — the Inman Park retail cluster that helped define what walkable, food-forward Atlanta retail could look like inside the perimeter. Asana bought The Shops of Dunwoody in March 2025, then sold the Krog District to Atlanta-based 26th Street Partners last September for $210 million. The move signals a deliberate pivot: take the instincts that made Krog work and apply them OTP.
You might reasonably ask: does that formula actually translate from a place like Krog? The bet here is that it is not really about geography. It is about giving people reasons to show up that have nothing to do with what they could order on their phone. A Pilates class. A sushi dinner. A smoothie after a workout. None of that ships in two days.
Brick-and-Mortar Is Not Coming Back — It's Evolving
The Shops of Dunwoody is basically a case study in how. Brick-and-mortar is not coming back as the catalog-style retail of the 2000s. It is coming back as experience: fitness studios, chef-driven dining, wellness concepts — the things you literally cannot do through a screen. Every one of the four tenants announced here fits that mold. That is the same logic driving retail openings we have been tracking across the metro, including the recent Edibles.com flagship in Inman Park. Different category, same thesis: physical retail wins when it offers something the internet cannot.
What it means for the neighborhood
JLL is framing this as a play for the walkable neighborhoods nearby, and that framing matters. The Shops of Dunwoody is not trying to compete with Perimeter Mall on scale or selection. It is trying to be the place you walk or drive five minutes to, three or four times a week, because your Pilates class is there and so is your favorite sushi spot. That is a different business model entirely, and it is one Dunwoody residents have been quietly asking for. If you want a sense of how this experiential retail wave is playing out at a larger scale, our coverage of the MARTA Arts Center redevelopment shows the same DNA: density, walkability, and tenants that pull people out of their cars and into the street.
Does your neighborhood have the kind of walkable retail mix Dunwoody is building toward, or are you still driving 20 minutes for a decent dinner and a workout?
The Krog District connection is the tell. When operators who built one of the most successful intown retail nodes in Atlanta decide to put their next chapter in a north-OTP shopping center, that is not a downgrade. That is a read on where Atlanta is actually growing. The Perimeter market has the rooftops, the income, and the appetite for the kind of experiential retail that used to live exclusively intown. The Shops of Dunwoody is going to be the early proof point, and I expect the rest of the suburban retail market to be watching closely. Smart bet, right tenants, right moment.
