Across Broad Street from City Hall, about 7.2 acres of empty land is still waiting for its groundbreaking. Down Peachtree Road at number 5468, the building where Chamblee's government used to meet is now Spruill Studios, with a public gallery open five days a week.
That pairing sums up Chamblee in 2026. The big ground-up project, the one with the renderings and the town green, hasn't started. The places that actually opened this year moved into a shopping-center suite, a storefront on Buford Highway, a bigger space next door, or an old civic building. If your weekend feels different this fall, it's because of those smaller moves, and most of them are already open.
The old City Hall got a second act
Spruill Studios held its grand opening in June in the former Chamblee City Hall, North Atlanta Star reported. It's part of the Spruill Center for the Arts. The building now holds 15 individual artist studios that rent yearly at reduced rates, along with shared storage and exhibition space. The studios run from about 105 to 198 square feet, and the 2026–27 group has 16 artists.
For a neighbor, the part that matters is the public gallery, which shows work made in the building. The Spruill Studios page lists gallery hours of 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday. The fall group show, with work by studio artists Yuan Butler, Nik Rosendorf, MaDora Frey, Ross Landenberger and Claire Paul alongside a solo exhibition by Spencer Clark, closed October 24. Check the page before you go to see what's up next.
Spruill's Holiday Art Fair runs November 13 through December 23, 2026, but it's at the Spruill Gallery at 4681 Ashford Dunwoody Road in Dunwoody, not at the Chamblee studios. Classes also register through Spruill's office on Chamblee Dunwoody Road in Dunwoody. The Peachtree Road building is the place to see working artists' pieces on a weekday afternoon or a Saturday, a few blocks from the Rail Trail.
North Atlanta Star noted that the conversion keeps a public use for the old government building. It's development by "adapting space the city already has." The same thing has been happening in Chamblee's food scene all year.
The year's food openings, street by street
None of these needed a new building to open. Here's what arrived in 2026, roughly in the order it opened:
- Brews & Hops Taproom. Rough Draft Atlanta listed it as open by January 22. You pour your own beer and wine, there are nonalcoholic options, and the menu leans toward Indian-fusion flatbreads, wings and chaat.
- Laylo Cafe, 5180 Peachtree Blvd., Suite 495. Pastry chef Chelsea Kim and her husband opened this cafe in January, Atlanta Magazine reported. It serves coffee, matcha, croissants, tarts and the detailed mousse desserts it's known for. They roast their own beans and make their own syrups. The soft opening was January 24, and the grand opening followed on February 6.
- Stellow Coffee & Floral, 3466 Chamblee Dunwoody Way. It's a coffee shop and a flower shop in one, with cafe food and bouquets. Rough Draft included it in Chamblee's April openings. Founder Clinton Perry and partner Luke Cagle were behind the plan, What Now Atlanta reported before it opened.
- The Irritable Claypot, 4897 Buford Hwy. A Chinese restaurant built around claypot rice. The Infatuation reviewed it as a new spot in late May.
- JMAC Burgers & Tacos. Smash burgers, tacos and chicken sandwiches. It made Rough Draft's list of July openings.
- Kamayan ATL, Asian Square on Buford Highway. This one barely moved. The Filipino restaurant took over a larger space next door to its original spot in Asian Square, Rough Draft reported, and held its grand opening August 8.
- Potbelly, Peachtree Station Shopping Center, 5001 Peachtree Blvd., Suite 640. The sandwich chain picked a Chamblee suite for its first Georgia shop, opening September 1 with a grand opening set for September 19, What Now Atlanta reported.
Kamayan's move is the clearest example of the pattern. A restaurant grew by taking the space next door, in the same Buford Highway plaza its regulars already knew. Laylo and Potbelly both opened in numbered suites along Peachtree Boulevard.
The ground-up project, still on the starting line
City Center is the counterweight to all of that. The plan covers the land bounded by Peachtree Road, Ingersoll Rand Drive, Irvindale Drive and Broad Street. It calls for 340 apartments, about 29,000 square feet of retail, and nearly three acres of open space with smaller parks and a central events lawn. Greystar Development and Vantage Realty Partners were picked in 2024 to redevelop the Downtown Development Authority's vacant land. That built on a town-center planning effort the city and the authority started in 2018.
On October 6, Chamblee Communications Director Shannon Wiggins told North Atlanta Star the property closing was still targeted for the end of October, with groundbreaking expected in November. Urbanize Atlanta's September 30 update quoted the same expected timing but didn't give a ceremony date. Earlier, ATL Vibes & Views reported that an available extension could push the closing into November. It also said the first visible signs after closing and permitting would be fencing, site clearing and construction traffic.
Those are start dates for construction, not opening dates for any shop or apartment. Once it's built, the edges are what will connect it to the rest of downtown. The approved plan includes 12-foot-wide Rail Trail segments along Peachtree Road and Ingersoll Rand Drive, new streetscapes, on-street parallel parking, and a town green of about an acre. A project representative told Urbanize that a stand of mature hardwoods near the building labeled Building 400 would stay. That promise covers one part of the site, not every tree on it.
For now, that means Spruill Studios and the downtown dining strip are the reasons to walk Peachtree Road, with a construction fence likely going up nearby sometime this season.
What's on the calendar between now and the holidays
Most of the next six weeks of events happen around City Hall, which puts the new gallery and the future City Center site within a short walk of each one.
- Saturday, November 7: Chamblee 3rd Spot, Georgia vs. Ole Miss. The watch party is at 3518 Broad Street. The city's 3rd Spot page still lists kickoff as TBA, so check it before you head over.
- Saturday, November 21, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Walk for Compassion. A peaceful pilgrimage along Buford Highway connecting Plaza Fiesta and Atlanta Chinatown, passing through Chamblee, per Discover DeKalb. The route runs along the same corridor as Kamayan ATL and The Irritable Claypot, so lunch afterward is easy to plan.
- Friday, December 4, 5 to 8 p.m.: Holiday Hoopla at City Hall, 3518 Broad Street. Tree lighting, a menorah ceremony, performances, stories, treats, Santa photos and Grinch pet photos, according to Discover DeKalb. The Holiday Hoopla site gives the same date in its 2026 listing. The site's welcome banner still says December 5th, which matches the 2025 date on Eventeny's listing for last year's Hoopla.
The renovation you can use right now, and the park still coming
Dresden Park counts as one of the existing places that got a new life. The 24-acre park at 2301 Dresden Drive reopened in December 2025 after about 18 months of renovation, paid for with $10.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds. It now has a three-tier playground, artificial-turf fields, tennis courts, a dog park and a walking trail. The community center, pavilion, restrooms and lighting were upgraded too. This holiday season is its first since reopening.
Fish Bolt Park is the one to add to next year's plans. The $4.6 million park on the Rail Trail at Chamblee Tucker Road broke ground in August. It will have accessible paths, a nature play area, public decks, a mural wall and a constructed wetland that treats stormwater. Wiggins confirmed it's still expected to finish in summer 2027.
Until then, the best way to see this year's Chamblee is a Saturday at the Spruill Studios gallery, coffee and a mousse dessert at Laylo, and dinner on Buford Highway.
If you own a home near downtown Chamblee, the gallery, the new cafes and the City Center groundbreaking all factor into what nearby homes are worth. Get Your Instant Home Valuation with Erin Olivier, and we'll walk you through what this year's changes mean for your street, with dependable communication every step of the way.
