Brookwood Village adds new tenants, eyes mixed-use future

Brookwood Village has filled several empty storefronts with new tenants this summer, from traditional retail to the arts.

The mall’s specialty leasing and marketing coordinator, Anne Stephens, said this variety is intentional as the mall looks to reinvent itself as a place for community gathering and entertainment, not just shopping.

“Incorporating more local boutiques, restaurants and entertainment offerings help show that Brookwood is far more than just a shopping mall, but a community gathering place and evolving entertainment destination,” she said via email.

Those new tenants include: women’s and children’s clothing boutique Butterflies and Magnolia; gift store Darnell’s Fun Stuff; Homewood Flowers and Gifts, which moved from Edgewood; Homewood Theatre; Cannella Gelato; and Edgewood Dance, which offers traditional dance, yoga and aikido classes along with inter-disciplinary and research opportunities. White Flowers, a Homewood icon that reopened at the mall in 2018, recently moved to a new storefront downstairs.

Darnell's Fun Stuff and Butterflies and Magnolia have already opened, while Homewood Flowers and Gifts is planning a grand opening Aug. 15 and Edgewood Dance is set to begin classes the week of Aug. 19. Homewood Theatre will open its season of performances Aug. 25, and Cannella Gelato will open in the food court sometime this fall.

Bradley Gilbert, who has co-owned Homewood Flowers and Gifts with wife Marilee Howard since last September, said the move to Brookwood Village allowed them to expand from 100 to 5,000 square feet. This room will accommodate more displays and classes on floral design.

He said the shop does a lot of corporate work and will now have room for “those large-scale pieces.” The placement of Homewood Flowers in the mall will allow them a back-door entrance, so customers in a hurry can call ahead and drive right up to receive their order.

Future plans for Homewood Flowers include a gift line, displaying works from various artists and adding a “flower bar” this fall, where Gilbert said people can buy scoops of dried flowers for potpourri.

“It’s magnificent,” he said of the new storefront.

Edgewood Dance owner Heidi Stoeckley said she was interested in opening her studio at the mall because of how well it can integrate with everyday shopping and fellow creative folks at Homewood Theatre.

The studio will offer drop-in and regular classes for all levels in yoga, aikido martial arts and dance styles such as jazz, tap, ballet, hip-hop and contemporary, as well as ballet and modern dance for higher level dancers. There will be children’s yoga, martial arts and hip-hop classes, as well, though she said the studio will be primarily adult-focused.

A graduate of Juilliard and former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company in New York, Stoeckley said she has envisioned this studio since she was 19 and sees it as much more than normal ballet classes. Branded as an “Institute for Exceptional Human Functioning,” Stoeckley said Edgewood Dance will offer research resources and interdisciplinary studies for students doing work on biomechanics, dancers and choreographers collaborating with each other, professional development and anyone else interested in the interaction of human movement and mind.

“We’re researching how movement can shape who we are as people, as a community,” she said.

Members of the studio will pay $99 per year to be able to access a resource library and open studio times for workshops and collaborative projects. Members will receive a discount on classes, but Stoeckley said it is not required for more casual attendees.

Classes will run from 8 a.m. to about 8:30 p.m. on weekdays and the studio will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. Prices range depending on class length and whether people choose a one-time drop-in or long-term contract.

“We’re hoping to make it a really convenient and family friendly, open and welcoming space,” Stoeckley said.

She plans to offer some free classes in the first week. More details and class registration can be found at edgewooddance.com.

Stephens said Brookwood Village has seen consumers’ interests change “toward a more experiential nature.” The 46-year-old mall is trying to shift to meet that interest, she said, with future plans including mixed-use repurposing of the building to accommodate anything from retail, restaurant and entertainment venues to offices, hospitality and possibly even residential space.

“Adding non-traditional tenants, such as Homewood Theatre and Edgewood Dance, are the latest iterations of this long-term strategy,” Stephens said.

She said more details on the mall’s future may be announced later this year.