Casabella's Last Christmas at Merchants Exchange, and What the Center Is Saving Room For
Suite 126 at Merchants Exchange is dark this November. LA Fitness held its 48,420 square feet until the gym closed this summer. Next door, Suite 127 has been quiet since Dance Stop Studios ended classes in May after 52 years. Suite 128 is still lit, still full of lamps, mirrors and mahjong sets, and heading into what its owner calls its last Christmas at 4400 Roswell Road.
Those three suites sit side by side, and together they hold most of the center. Merchants Exchange covers 130,013 square feet at Roswell Road and East Cobb Drive. The LA Fitness, Dance Stop and Casabella spaces add up to 74,299 square feet, about 57 percent of it. This holiday season, the center is open for business mostly through its cinema and a row of small storefronts. The large rooms between them are being held for a different kind of tenant.
Casabella has rented its space at Merchants Exchange for 24 years. Owner Cathy Linton said in October that the lease will not be renewed when it expires in September 2027. According to East Cobb News, she said the landlord is "looking to put a national chain in our location."
The store sells home furnishings, décor, women's clothing and gifts, and Linton has owned it since 2014. For this season she started holiday sales early on lamps, art, mirrors, furniture, clothing, jewelry, collegiate merchandise, mahjong items and gifts. All sales have been final since Nov. 1. Casabella scheduled its usual holiday open house for Nov. 6 and 7. In the same announcement, as East Cobb News reported, Linton said:
"This will be our last Christmas in this location and we would love to celebrate with you."
The lease runs until September 2027, so the store has a lot more selling days ahead. It isn't counting them yet. Linton told East Cobb News she isn't thinking about much beyond the holidays: "We're going to get through Christmas and then we'll figure out what's next." She has said the store may close, move or be sold and relocated. In the meantime her message to customers is short: "WE ARE STILL OPEN with lots of new merchandise!"
While Casabella sells its holiday stock, the center's leasing materials already list its suite as available. The tenant list on the current leasing brochure shows the three largest suites after the cinema this way:
| Suite | Most recent occupant | Square feet | Status on the leasing sheet |
|---|---|---|---|
| 126 | LA Fitness | 48,420 | Lease expires June 30, 2027 |
| 127 | Dance Stop Studios | 12,875 | Available |
| 128 | Casabella | 13,004 | Available |
| 150 | Shop space | 1,997 | Available |
The brochure advertises anchor space from 12,875 to 48,420 square feet on a "flex" basis. That range starts at the size of the old Dance Stop studio and ends at the size of the old gym, which is the scale of space a national chain looks for. Linton described the same plan for her own space.
Each of the three businesses left on its own timeline. Dance Stop's founder started the studio in 1974, and it had been at Merchants Exchange for more than a dozen years when the owners retired and closed it this spring. LA Fitness posted closure notices in June, East Cobb News reported, and the gym was gone by late summer, with its lease still running until mid-2027. Casabella is the only one of the three still open, and its suite is already on the leasing sheet next to theirs.
The rest of the center is a row of small storefronts, most between 1,200 and 4,800 square feet. That is the part of Merchants Exchange still open for everyday errands this season. Each of these businesses lists 4400 Roswell Road on its own website:
The leasing sheet also lists Glitz Waxing, Kumon Learning, a Goodwill donation center, Mattress Warehouse and a barber shop in the same row of storefronts. Combined, Fluffy Fluffy, Katana, Jersey Mike's, Salon Dekko and J'mz Bowls take up 9,900 square feet. That is less than Casabella's suite alone, and about a fifth of the empty gym. The shops still bringing people to the center during the week are also the smallest spaces in it.
With LA Fitness gone, Picture Show's 19,768 square feet in Suite 110 is the largest occupied space at Merchants Exchange. The center's management company, Columbia Properties, still lists the theater as one of its two anchors, and the center was renovated in 2021. The theater had its own renovation before that. East Cobb News reported a $1 million overhaul that wrapped up one week before COVID-19 shut it down.
Picture Show at Merchants Exchange sells reserved seats in Premier Electric Recliners and posts showtimes into December. The location's booking page lists D-BOX, Infinity Vision, RealD Digital 3D, UVX and sensory-friendly screenings among its formats. Its FAQ says senior tickets start at age 60, children under 3 get in free when they sit on an adult's lap, and MyShow Rewards members earn points on visits. Avengers: Doomsday is already on the schedule for Dec. 17 through 22. The theater also hosts private screenings and birthday parties, according to its events page.
This season, a night at Merchants Exchange is likely to include the theater, a meal at one of the small restaurants and a stop at Casabella on the way out.
The leasing brochure's main selling point is what surrounds the center. Avenue East Cobb is across the street, and East Cobb Crossing, with Publix and Dick's Sporting Goods, is shown next door on the site plan. Across the street, these events are on Avenue East Cobb's holiday calendar, as East Cobb News listed them:
We covered how Avenue East Cobb has handled its own vacancies earlier this fall. The two centers sit across Roswell Road from each other, and their holidays look very different. On Avenue East Cobb's side, the plaza programming runs through December. On the Merchants Exchange side, the cinema, a row of small shops and a 24-year-old home store are open, while three large suites are marketed to whatever comes next. By the time the LA Fitness lease ends in June 2027 and Casabella's in September, this stretch of Roswell Road will look different. For now, all of it is still standing and most of it is still open.
Changes like this at a local shopping center can affect how nearby homes are described and priced. If you live near Roswell Road and are wondering how those changes affect your home's value, Darron O'Bonnon offers a design-forward market consultation that combines a home valuation with a staging plan, built on the same kind of close local knowledge. More on the area is on our East Cobb neighborhood page.
Whether you're in the research phase at the beginning of your real estate search or know exactly what you're looking for, you'll benefit from having a real estate professional.