Johns Creek Town Center, Medley & Boardwalk in Fall 2026

Every neighbor with a phone has seen the reminder by now: Medley opens October 29. It is the date on the flyers, the countdown graphic making the rounds on neighborhood social feeds, the answer to "so when does this thing actually open." And it is true, as far as it goes. What it leaves out is that October 29 is not the beginning of Johns Creek's new downtown and it is not the end of it either. It is the second of four milestones spread across roughly three years, and the first one already happened without most residents noticing.

The Two Milestones That Already Passed

Start with the part of Town Center that is finished. The Boardwalk at Town Center, the 20-acre park behind City Hall, opened this spring with a public celebration held May 8 during the city's Summer Concert series, even as crews continued finishing punch-list items into the summer. The park was built for roughly $39 million and includes a 15-foot-wide elevated trail circling a pond and constructed wetland, an amphitheater with terraced seating for about 4,000 people, and pedestrian plazas overlooking the water. It is open now, today, for anyone who wants to walk it before the crowds show up in October.

The second finished piece is less visible but arguably more important for daily life: the pedestrian tunnel under Medlock Bridge Road, also known as SR 141. For as long as most current residents have lived in Johns Creek, that highway has functioned as a wall between the City Hall side of Town Center and the retail corridor on the other side. The city broke ground on the tunnel in November 2024, and construction of the tunnel itself is now complete, with the city council reviewing a structural inspection agreement with the Georgia Department of Transportation at its July 27 meeting. Once GDOT signs off, walking from the Boardwalk's pond overlooks to Medley's plaza will not require crossing multiple lanes of state highway traffic. That is the piece that turns two separate developments into one connected district, and it landed quietly, months before the ribbon-cutting everyone is circling.

What Actually Opens October 29

Medley itself is the $560 million, 43-acre project from Toro Development Company, the same firm led by Mark Toro that built Avalon in Alpharetta and Colony Square in Midtown. Phase one includes 164,000 square feet of retail, restaurant, and entertainment space, 883 luxury residences split between apartments and townhomes, 110,000 square feet of office space, and a 25,000-square-foot plaza designed to host roughly 200 events a year.

The named tenant list is long enough that a single evening will not cover it. Confirmed for opening day or close to it: STIR and its walk-up companion Tonic House, Little Rey from chef Ford Fry, CRÚ Food & Wine Bar, 26 Thai Kitchen and Bar, Five Daughters Bakery, Minnie Olivia Pizzeria, Fogón and Lions, Trader Joe's, Shake Shack, Sephora, Playa Bowls, Drybar, Summit Coffee, Lily Sushi Bar, Knuckies Hoagies, and Rena's Italian Fishery & Grill, alongside fitness and wellness concepts including BODY20, BODYROK, AYA Medical Spa, and Sugarcoat Beauty. Trader Joe's arrival marks the city's first location for the chain, which means a grocery run that currently means a drive to Alpharetta or Sandy Springs becomes a drive within city limits.

One detail worth knowing if you are trying to plan an actual visit: Fadó Irish Pub, occupying roughly 4,300 square feet plus a 1,000-square-foot patio fronting Medley's green space, is targeting its own grand opening on October 26, three days ahead of Medley's official date. If the pub sticks to that timeline, it will be the first Medley business most residents can actually walk into.

Empire Communities is building the residential piece of phase one, a townhome community called Tableau at Medley, with prices starting above $700,000.

The Sequence, Laid Out

The Wave Nobody's Calendar Has Yet

This is the part that gets lost in the countdown-graphic version of the story. Toro Development Company broke ground on Medley's second phase, called Encore, in April 2026, with Mayor John Bradberry, council members Bob Erramilli, Chris Coughlin, and Larry DiBiase, Fulton County Commissioner Bridget Thorne, and Development Authority of Fulton County Chair Kwanza Hall all in attendance. Encore adds 408 multifamily units and 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, financed in part through a $90 million loan from Denver-based capital partner Ascentris, and is scheduled to open in 2027.

The tenant list for Encore reads differently than phase one's. Where phase one leaned on names familiar from Avalon and Halcyon, Encore's first announced additions are Warby Parker, Tabla, an Indian restaurant taking its first suburban location at Medley, Hollow Oak, a bookstore and community space founded by Johns Creek native Katie Bossie, The Nest Cafe, CT Cantina & Taqueria, and The Commodore, a barbershop. It is a smaller, more local mix, and it will not open its doors for another year at minimum. Anyone who assumes the October ribbon-cutting is the finished product is going to be surprised again in 2027.

Then there is the hotel, which is not part of either phase's tenant list because it is not scheduled to open until 2028. Toro Development Company named Mainsail Lodging & Development as the operator in January 2026. Mainsail's Georgia portfolio includes Epicurean Atlanta in Midtown, Trilith Guesthouse in Fayetteville, and Hotel Forty Five in Macon, and the 150-key property planned for Medley will include a signature restaurant and roughly 5,000 square feet of meeting and event space fronting the plaza. Three separate press releases, three separate years, one project.

"With Boston Scientific almost complete, Creekside Park construction in full swing, and now the official launch of Medley as the premium mixed-use linchpin, our town center is quickly becoming a reality." — Mayor John Bradberry

Why the Rest of the Corridor Still Matters

None of this is happening in a vacuum. A few blocks away, the ordinary churn of the Medlock Bridge Road and State Bridge Road corridors kept moving on its own schedule while Medley was under construction. Whataburger opened a 24-hour location at 5825 State Bridge Road on February 23, 2026, with Mayor Bradberry attending the ribbon-cutting. Dutch Bros Coffee opened at 9630 Medlock Bridge Road in July 2025. Another Broken Egg Cafe, at 9700 Medlock Bridge Road, closed permanently, leaving a gap in the weekend brunch category that a Nest Cafe or Tabla will eventually help fill once Encore opens.

The bigger employers moving in tell a parallel story. Boston Scientific's new life sciences facility opened adjacent to Medley in 2025, bringing more than 300 employees and reinforcing the city's identity as a life sciences and medical technology hub. Half a mile away, Emory Johns Creek Hospital received approval to more than double its hospital and medical office footprint over the next 20 years, and has already added two new floors to the hospital, three floors to the Physicians Plaza building, and a 640-space parking deck as the first phase of that expansion.

What This Means for the Next Two Years

If you live in Johns Creek, the practical takeaway is simple. The Boardwalk and the tunnel are open or nearly open right now, today, before the crowds arrive. October 29 brings the first real wave of restaurants and retail, with Fadó likely beating the official date by three days. 2027 brings a second, more local wave with Encore. 2028 brings a boutique hotel that finally gives the district an overnight-stay option for visiting family or out-of-town clients. None of those dates is the finish line. Each one resets what a Saturday in Johns Creek looks like, and the version that exists two years from now will look different from the one opening this October.

That kind of staged, multi-year buildout is also the sort of thing worth watching if you own property near Town Center or are weighing a move into the area, because infrastructure and commercial investment on this scale tends to shape a neighborhood's character well past any single opening day. If you want a clearer read on what these changes might mean for a specific address, Tasha Kline can walk through it with you, starting with a personalized home valuation.