Commercial and Residential Locksmiths in Johns Creek

Homegrown in Alabama, Cookie Fix is making its way up I-20 as a part of Johns Creek’s planned mixed-use development, Medley.

In a previous post by What Now Atlanta, 11 restaurants were announced to come to the suburban location. Cookie Fix is the first dessert eatery planned for the mixed-use site.

Founded and owned by Amy Jason, the Johns Creek store will be the first in Georgia. This particular store will be a franchise location, owned and operated by Missy Moon out of the Atlanta Metro Area.

In addition to Cookie Fix, Moon just signed leases for two Nothing Bundt Cake franchises: Columbus Park Crossing North, 5555 Whittlesey Blvd Columbus, GA 31909, and at Fayetteville Pavilion, 72 Pavilion Parkway GA 30214.

Gary Woodward, Senior Vice President, JLL Tenant & Landlord Representation, was Missy’s broker on all three upcoming franchise leases.

Future patrons of Medley who may be familiar with Cookie Fix can expect the same type of experience from the existing locations.

“Our menu changes daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonally. We have 25 different varieties per week and about 100 different cookie varieties per year,” Jason said about the menu.

Although the Johns Creek location will be a franchise, it will offer consistency in the menu and freshly baked goods with no warming drawer.

Customers can also expect to consistently enjoy Cookie Fix’s top three-selling cookies – chocolate chip, heavenly peanut butter, and salted dark chocolate caramel.

Cookie Fix is based in Alabama, beginning with Amy Jason’s passion for desserts. From an early age, she loved to bake sweets and transitioned from less extravagant desserts to cookies as her life as a mother and wife got busier.

Amy Jason explained to What Now Atlanta that after successfully baking cookies for friends and family, she was encouraged by a mentor to sell her cookies to the masses.

Jason opened her first location seven years ago in Homewood and expanded to Cahaba Heights in Vestavia, Alabama. Huntsville opened as the third Alabama location and the first franchise for the organization.

Cookie Fix is also opening a franchise location in Franklin, TN and is excited about expanding its footprint in Medley.

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Unlike the average boarding facility, The Happy Cat Hotel and Spa on Medlock Bridge Road offers a luxurious extended stay for area felines.

After a career in broadcast and marketing, Pittsburgh native Susan Hamlin said she wanted to pursue something fulfilling. With three children now in high school and a lifelong love of cats, she found Happy Cat through a Facebook ad, a small growing chain with a handful of locations in the Northeast.

“I love cats,” she said. “I'm a crazy cat lady, or I would be. I only have one, but I would be if I could be … it just checked a lot of boxes for me.”

Hamlin, a Duluth resident, signed the deal to open the first Happy Cat location in Georgia and the South in mid-2022. The boarding facility and spa celebrated its grand opening Oct. 21, and now, Hamlin hopes to provide a one-of-a-kind experience for North Fulton cats.

Cats check in to Happy Cat Johns Creek much the same as humans check into luxury hotels. The hotel is appointment-based, where owners select a check-in and check-out time. Each cat has its own private room, though owners can book multiple cats in a single room for an additional fee.

Each of the 22 rooms at Happy Cat Johns Creek has a theme, including “Meowmi,” based on Miami; the “Rocky Meowntain Lodge,” which features Colorado-themed décor; and “Weekend in Purris,” an elegant and pastel space where four-legged guests are joined by their own Eiffel Tower on the wall.

The Johns Creek location has an exclusive room, “Catlanta United,” with a special soccer ball chair and a decal of the Atlanta skyline.

“There is a reason behind everything that's in there,” Hamlin said.

The business offers boarding for cats while their owners are on vacation, moving, renovating their homes, at work or facing a life event that makes it difficult to care for their pet.

No cats are kenneled at Happy Cat Johns Creek. While the rooms vary, most include wall perches, boxes for hiding and beds. If a guest is still anxious after their first night, Hamlin said staff can build a “fort” and cover any windows in the room.

“… it really is an oasis,” she said. “I don't know, I mean, we have so many things in place above and beyond what you see, you know, as far as, like, the care and the cleaning and updates and webcams. And there's just nothing like it.”

Each morning, Happy Cat staff check on all guests to ensure there are no health emergencies. Owners provide contact information for their veterinarians along with updated vaccination records.

The hotel asks owners to provide their cat’s choice of food for their stay. Any treats or special routines are accommodated so the furry guests are less homesick and more comfortable in their transient home.

Hamlin said owners receive daily updates and are always welcome to message staff for news on their cat. However, if the owner misses their companion or wants to see how things are going outside of business hours, each room has a webcam that can be accessed 24/7.

Some rooms at Happy Cat also border the windows of the business, so guests can look at the world outside. Hamlin said there will also be birdhouses on the windows for the cats’ viewing pleasure.

In addition to boarding, Happy Cat Johns Creek offers grooming services. Hamlin said the business hopes to fill the absence of cat groomers in Metro Atlanta, which are typically much harder to find than dog groomers.

“But just grooming, everything for dogs, is so prevalent,” Hamlin said. “So, we knew that respect of it was a niche, you know, and people are very pet focused.”

Happy Cat groomers are certified by the National Cat Groomers Institute, and services are performed without anesthesia. If a cat is ever too uncomfortable to continue, staff works with the owner to determine the next best steps for their client.

Happy Cat Johns Creek spa services include the standard cat groom, a bath, blow-dry, ear and eye cleaning and trim for long-haired cats; plush trims; traditional lion cuts; and de-shedding treatments.

Each service includes nail trimming, but owners are welcome to book the service without a groom.

Regardless of the reason for their stay, all cats at Happy Cat Johns Creek are given VIP treatment.

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Over the past year, Johns Creek officials gave the city’s recreation and parks system a major facelift and strengthened its standing as a Green Community through a number of eco-friendly initiatives.

In July, Johns Creek effectively doubled its park space with the grand opening of Cauley Creek Park, a 203-acre space on Bell Road.

The near-$26-million project includes a 5K rubberized trail and more than 10 lighted sports sites for basketball, futsal, pickleball and sand volleyball. There are also two synthetic and two turf lighted athletic fields, which have a cricket overlay, as well as a pedestrian bridge and river overlooks.

The new park spurred creation of an in-house Recreation and Parks Department, with eight full-time employees and a dozen part-timers headed by Director Erica Madsen. The city had previously contracted parks services through Jacob Engineering, which answered to the Johns Creek Public Works Department.

The fields at Cauley Creek Park had sparked debate among various sports teams without a home, vying for the space — an issue that had been identified in the Recreation and Parks Master Plan, approved in March.

But, Newtown Park Association was named as the youth sports provider for Cauley Creek and Shakerag parks, is set to work with other organizations that provide programming it doesn’t currently offer, like tackle football and cricket.

To activate its athletic fields, Johns Creek has historically partnered with nonprofit youth athletic associations through facility use agreements.

Other parks received improvements at the tail-end of the year, with the completed installation of field lights at Newtown Park, a capital improvement highlighted in the Master Plan, and the groundbreaking on renovation of the pickleball courts at Newtown Park. The cracked surface of the courts at Newtown will be demolished and replaced with six pickleball courts.

The Johns Creek City Council also fully funded Creekside Park with fiscal year 2023 leftovers, the centerpiece of the city’s Town Center. The groundbreaking on park construction is scheduled for next summer.

But, the city began working on a trail connection for the park, set for completion this month, which will connect the path around the pond behind City Hall to Medlock Bridge Road. The area will include a sculpture using steel from the old Rogers Bridge that spanned the Chattahoochee to Duluth.

By the end of October 2025, city leaders expect 100 percent occupancy of the Town Center and its grand opening.

The project includes Medley, a mixed-used development headed by Avalon’s Mark Toro, and Massachusetts-based Boston Scientific as well as public investments in the form of park space and infrastructure improvements.

The city has begun work on a number of projects to enhance the Town Center area, like a pedestrian tunnel under Medlock Bridge Road and intersection improvements for Medlock Bridge as well as the entrance to Medley. No definitive date for the groundbreaking on Toro’s development has been set.

This year, the city also centered on sustainability to advance its Green Communities certification through the Atlanta Regional Commission, a strategic priority that was set at the beginning of the year.

Olivia Ammons, assistant to the city manager, said Johns Creek’s “Going Green” is the branded effort of pursuing the certification, which involved launching the logo and the Sustainability Resource Center webpage in the spring.

Added to the city’s successful glass recycling location that opened last fall, Johns Creek partnered with Forsyth County for a 90-day recycling pilot program this September.

Previously, residents recycled through Keep North Fulton Beautiful in Sandy Springs, but the program with Forsyth County provides a northern option for recycling drop-offs. Following the 90-day period, the city is set to review the results of the pilot program to determine the feasibility of a long-term partnership for recycling services.

Johns Creek also awarded grant funding to Ocee Elementary and Northview High School through its new “Go Green” grant program, intended to encourage environmental stewardship and education among K-12 students.

A project started internally, the city began providing event vendors with aluminum cans of “Creek Water,” poised to reduce the tens of thousands of plastic water bottles distributed at functions each year.

The biggest transportation project of the year is the widening of Jones Bridge Road, intended to reduce traffic congestion and improve safety and access from Waters Road to State Bridge Road. A two-year effort, the project is scheduled to be completed in summer 2025.

Public Works Director Chris Haggard provided an updated total construction cost at $23 million. Funded by transportation special purpose local option sales tax, or TSPLOST I funding, the project saw a price hike from the $11 million budgeted in 2016.

Another major transportation project this year is the $5 million intersection improvement at Haynes Bridge and Old Alabama roads. Its ribbon-cutting was held Dec. 22.

The project includes the addition of turn lanes and pedestrian improvements, to assist in the reduction of delays and congestion, while also providing pedestrian connectivity along the corridor.

According to the city’s webpage for the project, Haynes Bridge Road was designed to handle 12,390 cars a day but had reached 47 percent over capacity.

This year, Haggard said Johns Creek has spent $16 million in total on completed transportation projects, which includes $4 million in annual resurfacing. But, he said more has been spent on projects still in the works.

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Johns Creek strengthened its positioning amid the pickleball craze in north Metro Atlanta as officials and ambassadors of USA Pickleball grabbed shovels Nov. 15 to break ground on renovation to the courts at Newtown Park.

The move comes after the July opening of Cauley Creek Park, its five concrete pickleball courts remaining busy throughout the day.

Johns Creek Recreation and Parks Director Erica Madsen said the aged, cracked surface of the courts at Newtown will be demolished and replaced with six pickleball courts. The footprint currently holds four, which had been created from longstanding tennis courts.

The near-$130,000 construction contract and a contingency was approved in October for the project, expected to take three months to complete.

Sandy Bishop, an ambassador of USA Pickleball, stood alongside staff members from the Recreation and Parks Department and Councilman Bob Erramilli for the groundbreaking. USA Pickleball is the national governing body to pickleball, a sport that combines tennis, table tennis and badminton.

In a small history lesson, Bishop said pickleball was invented more than 50 years ago in Bainbridge Island, Washington, though the sport picked up hype during the COVID-19 pandemic — an isolating time for people who needed a social outlet.

Pickleball has become the fastest growing sport in America, according to a 2023 report from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.

Unlike tennis, Bishop said anyone can come through a set of courts to pick up a pickleball game with strangers. She said many of her phone contacts are people she met through play.

“The beauty of it is it can be played with multiple generations, and so people started picking it up, playing it with their families,” Bishop said.

While it was once seen as a sport for boomers, she said the largest growing group of players is ages 25 to 30.

Bishop’s schedule as ambassador is especially busy nowadays with a wave of new pickleball courts and upgrades hitting the surrounding area. She attributes some of the sport’s at-home growth to organizations like the Professional Pickleball Association and Major Pickleball League coming into town.

After a three-week closure at North Park, Alpharetta doubled the site’s number of pickleball courts to a dozen. A bigger project is on the horizon in Alpharetta with the City Council’s recent approval of Pickle and Social, the newest concept by Competitive Social Ventures, coming to North Point.

The facility will include eight indoor and seven outdoor courts, a 14,000-square-foot restaurant and a 5,000-square-foot basement office for Competitive Social Ventures off Ga. 400 and Rock Mill Road.

Despite Appen Media’s heavy election coverage, its story on Pickle and Social trended No. 1 during the week of Election Day.

When people are looking to move, Bishop said access to pickleball is often at the forefront of their minds. She referenced an article from Architectural Digest, showing that folks prioritize pickleball as a neighborhood amenity.

Bishop said her own neighborhood off Kimball Bridge Road recently lined two tennis courts into four pickleball courts and is now looking for permanent courts because of the growth in players.

“It's one of those things where I tell people, ‘I'm sorry, once I put this paddle in your hands, you're gonna be addicted, and then I'm gonna have to turn you over to my dealer,’” Bishop said.

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — After the city received a flood of complaints regarding late fees for its annual stormwater utility billing, the Johns Creek City Council agreed to grant a one-time grace period Nov. 14.

Gathered from emails and social media posts, Mayor John Bradberry introduced the widespread issue at the City Council work session Tuesday evening, though the item wasn’t slated for discussion. Many residents have said they didn’t receive a first notice and were billed $6 to $7 in late fees attached to a second one.

“Who knows if the bills were actually delivered? Maybe they were, but either way, it seems that a large number of our residents did not get it on their radar screen,” Bradberry said.

The city took over stormwater utility billing from Fulton County this year, a tool that had been implemented in 2021 to fund citywide stormwater infrastructure projects. In fiscal year 2023, the city allocated $4.6 million to the repair and maintenance of its stormwater system, and in the new fiscal year, $3.8 million.

Councilman Larry DiBiase, who leads a stormwater task force along with Councilman Dilip Tunki, characterized the issue as “growing pains.”

“There was just a simple miss,” DiBiase said.

Between those who either have paid or owe late fees, Assistant City Manager Ron Bennett said the city would have received an additional $118,600 in utility funding. Next time around, Bennett said the city will try ramping up email and text notices.

Currently, the billing ordinance does not grant the City Council authority to waive late fees or interest penalties as part of a grace period, but Bennett was tasked to help draft new language for the allowance for the council’s approval.

In an interview, Bennett said credits will likely be added to the 2024 billing cycle.

Also at the work session, Bennett presented a contract renewal with Fulton County for animal control services. Associated with it is a price hike of around $104,000, a result of Fulton County’s construction of a new $40 million animal shelter and an increase in costs from veterinary care to personnel.

Johns Creek averages nearly 250 service calls a year, but whether that means handled, closed cases remains up in the air. Several councilmembers provided personal anecdotes in which calls were made but never answered.

“We’re last in the pile…” DiBiase said, referencing data for Atlanta, which receives nearly 9,400 calls a year.

With a Dec. 31 contract expiration, the council agreed to stall renewal with Fulton County to research other options.

At its regular meeting Nov. 14, the City Council formally recognized Marilyn Margolis, who is retiring from her position as CEO of Emory Johns Creek.

“She has been an institution in our community,” Mayor Bradberry said. “She has done so much, not just as the head of the hospital, but also just through all the many, many different nonprofit and philanthropic efforts that she's been a part of.”