Lenox Square 'facelift' plan explained to CID board

type='html'>Using a slogan that has been adopted for a planned multi-phase renovation of 53-year-old Lenox Square, Robin T. Suggs, general manager at Simon Property Group, Inc., today told the Buckhead Community Improvement District "It is time for a facelift.”

Robin Suggs explains renovations

Suggs added some details and sketches to an exterior and interior mall renovation project that BuckheadView first announced August 22, but the information was essentially the same. . 

The main new information was that the work would likely begin in the first quarter of 2013 and is planned to be completed by the fall holiday shopping season next year.

The interior and exterior renovations will include work designed to enhance visitors’ overall shopping and dining experiences, Suggs told her fellow members of the CID board Tuesday afternoon.

Suggs began by describing the new main Peachtree Road entrance to the mall, which will include a glass façade that will rise to above the mall roof line so as to present a lighted image to Peachtree Road at night.

The proposed new Peachtree Road entrance facade

The current four-way stop driveway entrance to Lenox Square parking off Peachtree will be replaced by a roundabout with a fountain in the middle. And, the walkway to the main mall entrance will be widened, landscaped and will have a new 12-foot-wide steps down to the walk from Peachtree Road.

In addition to the current valet parking dropoff at the main entrance to Lenox Square, the new design will include a second major entrance with an extended canopy and valet parking at the luxury wing, anchored by Neiman Marcus.

Additionally, the exterior will feature new display windows, enhanced lighting, landscaping and sidewalk treatements.

Suggs told the CIG board she hopes that Macy’s will be encouraged by the extensive facelift Simon Property Group is doing to also improve the exterior appearance of its store.

Robin Sugg explains planned changes to Lenox Square to CID board.  

Suggs said the new façade treatment was made easier by the fact that Crate & Barrel moved out of its location directly adjacent to the Peachtree entrance to the mall.

While she said that there is no indication at present that the Lenox Grille plans on leaving its location on the corner of the mall, “we are looking for a higher and better use of that space.”

Suggs told the CID board that as Simon Property Group firms up the construction schedule and decides to announce the dollar value associated with the renovations, she will keep them informed.

The renovation project is being done in conjunction of the transformation of Peachtree Road through Buckhead’s central business district into a boulevard environment, which is scheduled be finished by mid-November.