A new National Hockey League (NHL) arena could be built in Atlanta, Georgia after city leaders in the suburb of Alpharetta voted to approve a plan to redevelop North Point Mall.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution said the City Council voted 4-3 to rezone the nearly 99-acre mall into something comparable to The Battery Atlanta at Truist Park, the home of the Atlanta Braves.
If the project were to go ahead, it would include nearly 1,400 apartments, a move contingent upon its owners landing an NHL franchise.
The plan by developer Jamestown includes tearing down most of the mall and building a large arena and entertainment district to support an NHL franchise if the league’s leadership awards the Atlanta area an expansion team.
The vote was a crucial hurdle for the development team to clear, providing hope to hockey-starved fans across the region.
The nearly 99-acre plan would replace the mall with a mixed-use development centered around an approximately 20,000-seat hockey arena.
The proposal also includes a 4,000-seat music and performing arts venue, a 2,000-seat practice facility and community ice rink, two hotels, a movie theater, offices, shops, restaurants, 1,385 rental units and 26 acres of parks, plazas and trails.
Frances Bohn, Jamestown’s director of development and construction, told CBS News Atlanta that much of the proposed development depends on the NHL awarding an expansion team to the market and choosing the North Point site.
“Right now, we are working on a variety of different fronts, but most of it is contingent on an NHL expansion team award to the city and the site,” Bohn said.
Jamestown has not claimed that an NHL team has been awarded or committed to the project. The company said in February that it was pursuing the redevelopment partly to make the site ready for a potential NHL expansion franchise.
If the NHL does not select the market or the site, Bohn said Jamestown would need to reconsider the proposal.
She said, “We would have to go back to the drawing board and think through what that looks like. It would be a different plan. Absolutely.”
Bohn said the property could still be redeveloped without the arena, but the company would need to begin the planning and approval process again for a different proposal.
Jamestown estimates the development would require about $2 billion in construction spending and create more than 13,000 temporary construction jobs and more than 6,000 permanent jobs across the proposed uses.
North Point Mall is privately owned by New York Life, which acquired the property in 2021. Jamestown is overseeing planning and development work.
Jamestown said it modified parts of the proposal in response to community feedback about traffic, density and other concerns.
Bohn said the mall’s carousel, which residents asked the company to preserve, now has a permanent place in the proposed development.
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