A year and a half after Walgreens closed and left downtown residents without a place to buy basic necessities, the Olympia Building is a grocery store again.
Azalea Fresh Market opens to the general public Thursday at 2 p.m. at 25 Peachtree St., directly across from Woodruff Park. Mayor Andre Dickens, Invest Atlanta president and CEO Dr. Eloisa Klementich and other officials are scheduled to lead a ribbon-cutting beforehand.
A municipal grocery
The two-story store is a public-private partnership between Savi Provisions, Invest Atlanta and the City of Atlanta, described as the first concept of its kind. It also includes a kiosk from Decatur-based Dope Coffee.
The concept came together through work between city officials, Savi Provisions, the Independent Grocers Alliance, local organizations and community members who identified the need for fresh, healthy and affordable food downtown. Fourteen percent of Atlanta experiences food insecurity, and the store is one piece of a broader effort to reach low-access neighborhoods.
What Walgreens leaving meant
The drugstore closed in spring 2024 after seven years, leaving a gap for downtown residents, workers and thousands of Georgia State University students. A Change.org petition urging Walgreens to reconsider gathered nearly 800 signatures and did not work.
Walgreens cited its existing store footprint, local market dynamics and changes in customer buying habits among the reasons for the closure.
The building
The Olympia Building, topped by the illuminated circular Coca-Cola sign overlooking Woodruff Park, underwent a full renovation finished in 2016 that restored its Art Deco facade, a substantial investment by Walgreens at the time.
That project gutted the interior entirely, leaving only the stone walls braced by steel beams, which revealed that while the facade dates to the 1930s, the building's bones are older.
Having a grocery store on Five Points rather than a vacant landmark changes the daily calculation for everyone living within walking distance, which is the point of doing it as a partnership rather than waiting for a chain to decide the market works.
Original reporting by Josh Green for Urbanize Atlanta, published August 2025.
