High-Tech Food Hall Announced for Phipps Plaza

Phipps Plaza, the upscale Buckhead shopping center, is adding a massive food court to its offerings. The new 25,000-sq.-ft. dining area is the result of a partnership between the Simon Property Group, which is the largest owner of shopping centers in America, and SBE, which has a diverse portfolio of brands across the food, hospitality and entertainment industries.

Unlike other new food court offerings that have proliferated throughout local shopping centers in recent years, the Phipps Plaza food court is expected to feature a number of dining options created by SBE’s subsidiary, Creating Culinary Communities (C3).

When the concept debuts in November, visitors to the food court will be able to choose from such C3 creations as Umami Burger, Krispy Rice, In A Bun and La Gente Tacos, among others. All of the food will be sourced from a single kitchen and diners will pay for what they buy on a single check.

SBE is owned by Sam Nazarian, a Los Angeles-based businessman who was born into a wealthy Persian Jewish family in Tehran. He told the online hospitality newsletter QSR that the new operation strives to adapt its concept to offer economies of scale.

“What really makes us unique is that we’re able to put up to 15 brands into a kitchen. We own all our own brands. We create them in house and with strategic culinary partners like some of our James Beard and Michelin chefs. We’re able to really unlock the value.”

The company, which is calling the new concept Citizens, has opened food halls in Manhattan and Miami. The goal is not only to offer a sit-down dining experience, but also to facilitate pick-up orders there and quick delivery to the surrounding homes, apartments and offices.

“You’re able to have a lot of different experiences through one purchase, one delivery fee,” Nazarian told QSR. “More importantly, all these brands and the food you’ve ordered, all coming at the same time through one delivery driver. And I think it’s a real game changer as opposed to families or individuals having to order multiple.”

The food hall remodeling is the latest effort by Simon Property Group to pump new life into its most attractive shopping malls amidst a sharp decline in retailing.
Coresight Research estimates that 25,000 stores closed in the first year of the pandemic and as many as 60 percent of them are in America’s malls. The research firm estimates that 25 percent of America’s 1,000 malls will shutter permanently in the next three to five years.

Phipps Plaza is anchored by Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom and has a number of high-priced designer label shops. It also houses a Tiffany & Co. and a 32,000-sq.-ft. Legoland Discovery Center, which displaced a number of food court tenants when it was built on the mall’s third level in 2011.

Simon Property Group is a real estate investment trust based in Indianapolis. It was originally founded by two Jewish brothers, Melvin and Herbert Simon, in 1960. It rode the boom in suburban American shopping mall expansion through much of the latter years of the 20th century but has scrambled to adapt in recent years to alternatives like online shopping.

Its partnership with SBE is yet another addition to the Phipps mall, which opened in 1969 as Atlanta’s first multilevel mall, built on a large tract of land once owned by the Alexander family, prominent and longtime Jewish residents of Atlanta.
In the last four years, the mall has demolished what had been a Belk department store to build a 150-room Nobu Hotel and restaurant, a 300,000-sq.-ft. office tower and a 90,000-sq.-ft. athletic facility. Last year, Alon’s, the local bakery and market, opened a 5,300-sq.-ft. location on the ground floor.

Nazarian’s new food hall at Phipps is just one part of a much broader strategy to take advantage of the new ways consumers are engaging with restaurants and accessing their menus. Although Simon Property executives may be hopeful that the new food hall will increase shopping at Phipps Plaza, Nazarian sees the new venture as an opportunity to take advantage of the latest trends.

“We do have food halls. But we’re a brand company and we’re a technology company to get you the food in the manner you want it. And so, it’s definitely a big foundational part of the way we look at the business, which is the quality of the brand and how it speaks to millennials, how it speaks to people that are for the first time — because they are a bit older — ordering online.”