"If no NHL team is awarded, then this TAD no longer will exist." Fulton County Commissioner Bob Ellis said it during the county's Oct. 21 meeting, as SaportaReport reported. That one sentence explains most of what changed at North Point Mall last month.
Alpharetta and Fulton County have now both voted yes. Together they created a pool of future tax money that stays closed until a hockey league decides to expand, and the deal has exactly one fixed date: construction has to begin by Dec. 31, 2030. Until then, North Point stays the mall off GA-400 that it has been since 1993, and this year it has a full holiday calendar.
Two Unanimous Votes, Two Days Apart
The Alpharetta City Council approved the intergovernmental agreement unanimously on Oct. 19 and sent it to the county. Appen Media reported that. Fulton County commissioners approved it unanimously on Wednesday, Oct. 21.
A tax allocation district, or TAD, sets aside the growth in property tax revenue inside a defined area. That money then pays for infrastructure for the redevelopment there. Alpharetta created the current North Point TAD last December, and it can run for up to 30 years. The agreement decides how much each taxing body puts in:
Taxing body | Estimated contribution over the life of the TAD | Where it stands as of early November 2026 |
|---|---|---|
City of Alpharetta | About $109 million | Approved Oct. 19 |
Fulton County | Up to $192.4 million | Approved Oct. 21 |
Fulton County Schools | About $185.3 million | City still seeking the district's participation |
Potential total | About $486 million | Depends on all three joining |
The county's share is the biggest of the three. It also comes with the strictest condition. WABE reported that Alpharetta officials were still working to bring Fulton County Schools in. Mayor Jim Gilvin told the paper, "Whether they participate is up to them."
The Only Date in the Deal
The county's money depends on Alpharetta landing an NHL franchise. The agreement also sets a time limit. Under its terms, Fulton County's participation ends automatically if construction has not started by Dec. 31, 2030, unless the county extends or waives that deadline. In that case Alpharetta has to return any county tax increments it has not already committed to eligible costs, pledged to bonds or set aside for specified obligations.
Commissioner Dana Barrett pressed on this during the county meeting. She asked whether the county would get its contributed increments back if the project stalled, and whether county funds could pay for early redevelopment costs before a team is secured. Commissioner Bridget Thorne, whose district includes North Point Mall, said an Alpharetta franchise would benefit all of Fulton County.
On the city side, Councilman John Hipes asked what would happen if a team relocated before the bonds were paid off. City Administrator Chris Lagerbloom said the agreement expects a franchise to commit to the arena for at least as long as the longest bond repayment period, with financial penalties to cover outstanding bonds if the team leaves early. He described the protections this way to SaportaReport:
"Hope that doesn't happen but there are protections to make sure we aren't stuck with an arena and there is no team in it, and we have a whole bunch of debt."
So the 2030 deadline and the relocation penalties guard the money at the two ends of the project. The project itself starts only when the NHL awards a team.
The League Has No Application Window
North Point needs an NHL team, and the NHL has not opened a process to award one. In a Sept. 25 interview with Sports Business Journal, Commissioner Gary Bettman said the league had not started a formal expansion process. He said current talks come from unsolicited expressions of interest, and that the board of governors makes the final call. "We're not committed to expanding," he said.
He was asked what the competing Atlanta-area efforts need to show. His answer: "They'll come to us when they're ready. Nobody has to demonstrate anything to us at this point because it isn't a formal process." On whether the league prefers Alpharetta or South Forsyth, he said, "we don't know enough yet to determine what is the best location."
The league's most advanced conversation is somewhere else. In June, the NHL announced a feasibility evaluation of Houston or Austin with the Friedkin family. Bettman said then that Atlanta was not ruled out and was on a different track.
North Point also has a regional rival. The Gathering at South Forsyth is pursuing the same team. Forsyth County voters approved a referendum in 2024 allowing a tax allocation district for that project. In 2025, the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, the county development authority and the Forsyth County Board of Education approved agreements to service debt on a $225 million project bond tied to landing a team.
For Alpharetta, the point of October's votes is readiness. The city put it this way in Appen's coverage: "A site that is entitled and financeable when the league is ready to act is better positioned to capture that opportunity."
Why the City Is Willing to Wait
This is Alpharetta's second North Point tax district. The first was approved in 2019. Mayor Gilvin told Appen Media that it never got off the ground because of the pandemic and the property value losses that followed, and it was dissolved in 2023.
Those losses are the city's reason for trying again. According to Appen, estimated 2024 city, county and school district property taxes on the mall's real estate and commercial personal property were down nearly 53.5% from five years earlier. A TAD only produces money when values inside it rise. A shrinking tax base means a large project would turn even a modest increase into real revenue. Lagerbloom said the reinvestment matters because "I don't think the project would happen otherwise," and city staff said the project's scale would likely be too much for private funding alone.
What the Rezoning Would Put There
The land-use approval came first. On Aug. 24, the City Council voted 4-3 to rezone the nearly 99-acre site, as the AJC reported. New York Life owns the mall, and its development partner Jamestown runs mall operations in the meantime. The plan is split into three phases and includes:
- A 20,000-seat arena sized for an NHL franchise
- 1,385 apartments across five buildings, two of them up to 20 stories
- 750,000 square feet of office space
- 565,000 square feet of commercial space, including the existing Von Maur and Dillard's buildings
- A 2,000-seat practice and community ice rink
- Nearly 27 acres of open space and seven parking decks with about 8,750 spaces
- A connection to the Alpha Loop and MARTA bus infrastructure
The AJC reported that the rezoning, like the tax agreement, depends on the owners landing an NHL franchise. That makes three approvals, and none of them sets a start date.
North Point This Season
The two anchors that stay in the plan, Dillard's and Von Maur, both have weekly hours posted in the mall's directory. The mall's events calendar runs through the holidays:
- Through Nov. 30: Alpharetta Retail Month, with a tote offer for qualifying local purchases.
- Through Nov. 8: Spotlight Community Stage's production at the mall, which started Oct. 23.
- Nov. 7: Neighborhood Heroes, a family day with first responders, bounce houses and a touch-a-truck theme.
- Nov. 21: The Holiday Kick Off, with entertainment and a parade, followed by the start of Santa photos.
- Nov. 21 through Dec. 24: Santa photos, with traditional, pet and sensory-friendly sessions.
- Dec. 4: An additional Spotlight Community Stage show.
Session times for the pet and sensory-friendly Santa photos are on the mall's event page.
Whether the arena gets built depends on the NHL board of governors voting to expand and choosing this site. Fulton County Schools also has to decide whether to put in its $185.3 million share. If construction has not started by Dec. 31, 2030, Fulton County's participation ends unless the county extends the deadline. Through Christmas Eve, North Point is running its holiday season as a mall.
If you own a home near North Point and want to know what it's worth today, based on recent sales and the condition of the house itself rather than on a franchise decision no one can schedule, Wesley Harper can walk you through it. Start with a free home valuation, and we'll talk through your options from there.
