For years, the corner of Medlock Bridge Road and Johns Creek Parkway was something you drove past on the way somewhere else. Two vacant office buildings, a stretch of surface parking, and a pond behind City Hall that most residents had never walked around. In the span of about six months this year, that changes.
The Boardwalk at Town Center opened in May. The pedestrian tunnel under SR 141 is on track to finish this summer. Medley, the 43-acre mixed-use anchor, opens October 29. Every headline treats those three items as separate news. They are not. They are one sequence, and the middle piece is the one that decides whether the other two add up to a real downtown or three good projects that never quite touch.
Three Moves, Not One Grand Opening
Here is the order residents should hold in their heads:
- May 8, 2026. The Boardwalk opened behind City Hall at 11362 Lakefield Drive with a ribbon cutting and a summer concert.
- Summer 2026. The Medlock Bridge Road pedestrian tunnel completes, connecting Boardwalk-side parking and Creekside amenities to the west side of SR 141.
- October 29, 2026. Medley debuts its first phase, opening the retail, restaurant, and residential components onto a 25,000-square-foot central plaza.
Any two of those three, on their own, produce a nice amenity. All three, in that order, produce a walkable district. Which is why the middle move matters more than the marketing budget behind either bookend.
What August Actually Looks Like at the Boardwalk
The Boardwalk sits on a 20-acre parcel behind City Hall. The space includes an outdoor amphitheater, overlooks, pedestrian plazas, trails through wetlands and terraced seating. Construction totaled $39 million, and the venue has capacity for 4,000 people, which puts it in the same rough tier as Alpharetta's amphitheater lawn for summer concert programming.
The trail is approximately one mile from Johns Creek Parkway headed north to McGinnis Ferry Road, and the North Pond loop is about a half mile. That half-mile loop is the piece most residents are actually using in August. It reads less like a destination park and more like the neighborhood walking path that Johns Creek did not have before.
Mayor John Bradberry framed the opening in unusually plain language for a ribbon cutting. "People's pride in Johns Creek has been evolving as we've matured. It's going to be the most important thing to happen for our community since we were incorporated." That is a strong claim from a mayor about a park. The reason it holds up is that the park is not really the point. The point is the sightline it creates across Medlock Bridge Road.
The Tunnel Is the Piece That Matters Most
The City broke ground on the tunnel in November 2024, and the new pedestrian tunnel will provide a safe, accessible crossing under Medlock Bridge Road (SR 141), connecting residents and visitors to the Town Center area and the new park behind Johns Creek City Hall. Completion is targeted for summer 2026.
Consider the alternative. Without the tunnel, the Boardwalk sits on the east side of a five-lane state route and Medley sits on the west. A resident who walks the North Pond loop and then wants a coffee at Summit or a bowl at Playa has to drive. That is not a walkable district. That is two parking lots facing each other.
With the tunnel, the geometry inverts. The new elevated trail weaves for nearly a mile along a creek and through woods before linking with The Boardwalk at Town Center, and the trail also links with the large-scale Medley development, which is scheduled to deliver its first mixed-use phase in October. A connection to the city's existing Johns Creek Greenway is also coming. One continuous pedestrian path, from the Greenway through wetlands, under SR 141, into a plaza with restaurants. That is the version of Johns Creek that has never existed before.
If the tunnel slips past October, Medley opens as an island. If it lands on schedule, the whole sequence reads as designed.
The October 29 Lineup, Read by Category
Medley has been announcing tenants in waves, which makes the roster hard to parse. Sorted by what each opening actually signals, the picture sharpens:
| Category | Confirmed for October 29 | Why it matters locally |
|---|---|---|
| Grocery anchor | Trader Joe's | The closest existing Trader Joe's is a drive south. This shifts weekly routines. |
| First Georgia location | STIR + Tonic House, Cookie Fix | New concepts, not chain expansion. |
| First OTP location | Northern China Eatery | Established Atlanta favorite crossing 285 for the first time. |
| First suburban location | Fadó Irish Pub, Five Daughters Bakery | Concepts that were previously in-town only. |
| Chef-driven / regional | CRÚ Food & Wine Bar, 26 Thai, Minnie Olivia, Fogón and Lions, Lily Sushi Bar | Fills the sit-down dinner gap. |
| Fast-casual and cafés | Shake Shack, Summit Coffee, Playa Bowls, Knuckies Hoagies, CT Cantina & Taqueria, Tabla | Daytime and lunch traffic. |
| Beauty, wellness, retail | Sephora, Warby Parker, Drybar, High Country Outfitters, BODYROK, BODY20, Petfolk, Kontour Medical Spa, Moop's Boutique | Services that currently require a trip to Avalon or Perimeter. |
STIR is a 6,000-square-foot restaurant that will anchor the project's central plaza and is scheduled to open during Medley's grand debut on October 29, 2026, and STIR is also introducing a standalone concept next door called Tonic House, a 1,000-square-foot satellite cocktail bar that opens directly onto the plaza for a walk-up experience. That plaza-facing walk-up model is the detail worth watching. It is the mechanic that turns a shopping center into a place people linger.
One correction to the record. Ford Fry's Little Rey was announced early and appeared on nearly every roundup. Little Rey is no longer listed on the retail roster. If you have been telling neighbors that a Ford Fry restaurant is coming, that is no longer accurate.
The 164,000-square-foot retail component is now more than 75 percent leased, and spread across 43 acres, Medley is scheduled to open its initial phase Oct. 29. Seventy-five percent at four months out is a healthy number. It also means a handful of storefronts will still be papered on opening weekend, which is normal for a project this size.
The Layer Behind the Restaurants
The reason Medley works economically is not the retail. It is the daytime population being built alongside it. In Medley's office space, Boehringer Ingelheim will occupy over 70,000 square feet, and the space will become the company's new U.S. headquarters with close to 500 employees when it opens. Boston Scientific's new life sciences research and development facility, adjacent to the Medley development, opened earlier this year with plans to bring more than 300 employees to the area.
Add those two anchors to the medical staff at Emory Johns Creek Hospital half a mile away, and Medley opens with roughly a thousand people whose weekday lunch options are the tenants across the plaza. That is why the coffee and fast-casual lineup is as deep as the dinner roster. Summit at 7 a.m., Knuckies at noon, STIR at 7 p.m., all served by the same footprint.
Toro Development Company announced it has secured financing for the project's second phase, known as Encore, and added seven new tenants, bringing Medley to 37 executed leases, and the project is now about 78% leased on the retail side as it counts down to its planned Oct. 29 opening. Encore, which broke ground April 14, will add 408 apartments and 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Phase 2 is already under construction. This is not a wait-and-see development.
What Changes for a Resident After Halloween
If you already own a home in Johns Creek, three practical things shift in the last two months of the year.
Weekend logistics compress. The default answer to "where should we go for dinner" stops being Avalon or Halcyon by reflex. The tunnel means you can park at City Hall, walk the North Pond, cross under SR 141, and eat on a plaza without moving your car. That is a routine North Fulton has offered elsewhere for a decade. Johns Creek has not had it.
Grocery patterns change. A Trader Joe's inside the city limits pulls a weekly errand out of the McGinnis Ferry commute. For households that were already driving to Alpharetta or Sandy Springs for a specific reason, the reason gets smaller.
Property-value conversations shift from anticipation to evidence. Values in the immediate radius of Medley have been pricing in the promise of a town center for two years. Starting November 1, buyers can walk the finished plaza on a Saturday and decide for themselves whether the promise landed. That is a different negotiation than the one that has been happening.
The three moves are already in motion. The Boardwalk is open. The tunnel is close. Medley has a date. If you live in Johns Creek and have been half-following the headlines, August is a reasonable weekend to walk the Boardwalk loop, look across Medlock Bridge Road at the construction cranes, and take stock of what the city is about to become.
If you are thinking through how Town Center changes what your home is worth, or where the next chapter of Johns Creek fits into a buying decision, the team at The Bonnie Smith Group is tracking every lease, opening, and closing on this corridor. Reach out when you want a read that goes beyond the press releases.
