Two years ago this month I wrote a post proclaiming that Potbelly Sandwich Works was going to take over the space vacated by Atlanta Bread Company on McGaw Road.
I was wrong.
I later learned that, although they closed the store, the parent company of Atlanta Bread remained under lease obligation. In the retail business this is also known as controlling the space. Retail is as much about real estate as it is about anything. This remaining lease term gave Atlanta Bread a seat at the table in deciding who the new tenant will be and under what terms. Sometimes retailers simply warehouse a good location until they decide to try out a different concept. Other times a retailer may control a vacant store simply to keep a competitor out.
Of course as that lease obligation begins to burn off so does the retailers bargaining power.
In any event, it looks like a deal may now have been struck with Jason's Deli. Long time Tales of Two Cities netizen, Lotsabogeys, sent me an email this week saying “Jason's Deli is going in across the street from Wegmans where the Atlanta Bread Company was, but you might already know that.”
In fact I didn’t know that. Thanks for sharing it.
This could be welcome news amongst the gluten-free crowd in HoCo.
