RaceTrac and Wendy's Headline Proposed Intown Redevelopment

A local developer is planning a three tenant redevelopment at the busy intersection of Briarcliff and Clairmont Roads in DeKalb county.  Jay Gipson of The Gipson Company has the assemblage under contract with plans to build a new RaceTrac, Wendy's and Express Oil Change & Tune-Up Clinic on the combined roughly 3.74 acre property.  

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According to DeKalb county property records, a single entity owns all nine addresses involved in the redevelopment. "JMAR Investors LP," a holding company based in Madison, Georgia, controls three Briarcliff Road and six Clairmont Road addresses.   The assemblage includes 3068, 3070 & 3080 Briarcliff Road and 2778, 2794, 2804, 2806, 2810 & 2814 Clairmont Road.  According to Gipson, the holding company has controlled some of the properties for  over 70 years.

The properties in question are largely home to a number of older and dilapidated buildings but also a Volvo repair business, Auto Clinic 360 and an existing Express Oil Change that would relocate within the project as part of the redevelopment.  The plot of a former Waffle House that was demolished at least ten years ago and was later home to a makeshift car-wash is also part of the proposed redevelopment.  The project is situated beside the retro Riviera Terrace condo development.  

Fuel pumps from the shuttered Shell were removed from the site in January 2015

The Volvo repair facility at the corner of Briarcliff & Clairmont Roads

The existing Express Oil Change and Tune-Up Clinic 

ToNeTo Atlanta has been following this project for over three years with there having previously been at least one other interested developer, with other tenants proposed.  Last year there was talk of some combination of a Zaxby's, Walgreen's, Starbucks and/or Del Taco, but those plans failed to materialize.  

Jay Gipson, his company's attorney and a representative from RaceTrac held a preliminary community meeting Thursday night to present their plans to neighbors.  Many expressed concern about anticipated additional traffic, something that Gipson indicated was unlikely, given that his development would serve more as an amenity than an attraction.  A grocery or drug store, for instance, would draw people to the property, whereas his proposed uses, for the most part, are conveniences for those already on the road and in the area.  

One valid concern voiced by residents, that the development won't affect, is the upcoming onslaught of  thousands of additional cars that will be leaving the new Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) building at I-85 and North Druid Hills Road.  The Center for Advanced Pediatrics, which is due to be completed next year, is being built in place of a former hotel and is expected to make worse an already congested NE Access Road along I-85.  

While there is little that Gipson can do about the traffic from CHOA, he does seem to have planned his project with accessibility in mind, including a road running nearly the entire rear of the project to allow for in additional access to Briarcliff Road, as well as the primary access points off of Clairmont Road.

Some residents also questioned whether the area needed yet another gas station.  QuikTrip opened on the site of the former Ed's IGA grocery store in 2013 and a Chevron operates across the street in a former Speedway / Starvin' Marvin.  Gipson and his attorney claimed that a feasibility study was done verifying that the area can support all three fuel retailers.  That said, given RaceTrac and QuikTrip's notorious price wars, it's altogether possible that if the RaceTrac is built, the Chevron will be on borrowed time.   

The proposed RaceTrac will look like this 

Gipson will make a formal presentation before the DeKalb Community Council in January and the Planning Commission after that.  While the properties, which are classified brownfield given their prior uses, are properly zoned for the proposed uses, Gipson does need Special Land Use Permits (SLUP) for the Wendy's drive-thru and RaceTrac fuel sales and beer & wine sales.   

Plans call for the new RaceTrac to look like the new Brookhaven location the company will open this morning at the corner of Dresden Drive & Clairmont Road.  RaceTrac is also moving forward with plans for a new location at Buford Highway & Chamblee Tucker Road in Chamblee.  

The Wendy's will be an "image activated-smart desgn" location and will feature the company's latest modern design elements.  The new Wendy's will look very similar to the recently rebuilt Wendy's on Spring Road and Cobb Parkway in Smyrna. As ToNeTo Atlanta reported previously, Wendy's also plans to "scrape and rebuild" their existing restaurant in an outparcel of Toco Hills shopping center on North Druid Hills Road next year.

The proposed Wendy's is expected to look like this 

If all goes well, Gipson tells ToNeTo Atlanta that site prep could start as soon as March, with plans to turn over the property to the tenants about three or four months later.  

If that timeline holds true, the RaceTrac, which would feature a 5,400 square foot convenience store and 20 pump fuel center, would likely open spring 2019.  The 3,000 square foot franchised Wendy's restaurant could likely open in late 2018 and the approximately 4,000 square foot Express Oil potentially following a similar timeline. 

Across from the proposed development, Williamsburg Village shopping center, originally anchored by an A&P grocery store, sits largely vacant and a vehicular obstacle course after years of parking lot neglect.  Gipson indicated that he is "in talks" with the LeCraw family, who currently own the center, about possibly redeveloping it in the future.  

Gipson, who lives in Brookhaven, previously redeveloped a former real estate office into a Walgreens and Piedmont Hospital medical facility on Peachtree Road in Brookhaven.  As ToNeTo Atlanta reported earlier this year, Gipson also plans to develop the adjacent parcel of land in Brookhaven previously home to  The Solomon Goodwin House.  Gipson tells ToNeTo Atlanta that while original plans were for a combination restaurant/medical complex, the development will now be all medical.

All in all, the proposed Briarcliff & Clairmont Road redevelopment may not be the outcome that everyone can agree on, but given the alternative, it seems like a pretty solid option.  

What would you like to see happen to this property?  Do you think the proposed tenants make sense for the area?  Are you afraid of the expected traffic that the CHOA expansion will bring?

Please share your thoughts below.  

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