"We loved spending time downtown, but were disappointed in the entertainment options that families could enjoy together." That's how Jennifer McBride explained the start of The Blue Ghost Arcade to Voyage ATL in November 2025. She and her husband, Bug, moved to Woodstock in 2015. They bought their first arcade cabinet in 2017, filled their house with restored machines, signed a lease just as 2020 shut everything down, and finally opened in June 2021.
The arcade is at 164 Towne Lake Parkway. That puts it in the older strip next to the 11-acre site where Connolly is now building the Publix-anchored Woodstock Mill District. At this corner, the hobbies came first. The old strip's three tenants are a cigar bar whose owner dates it to 2010, an arcade that opened in 2021 and a scuba school, and all three were in business well before Connolly closed on the new site last year. The Publix, the coffee shop, the vet clinic and the dentist arrive last. When the district opens in 2027, it adds everyday errands to a strip that has run on scuba lessons, cigars and pinball.
The Strip That Already Keeps Late Hours
Shopping Center Business reported that the 28,000-square-foot strip, formerly Towne Lake Plaza, has three tenants: The Blue Ghost Arcade, Maxwell's Cigar Bar and Dive Georgia. Connolly bought the strip in 2021 for $4 million, the same year the arcade opened.
Here's what those three tenants are, with hours as each business currently lists them online:
| Business | Address | What it is | Listed hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Blue Ghost Arcade | 164 Towne Lake Parkway | Free-play retro arcade and pinball with a full bar | Mon–Thu 1 p.m.–midnight; Fri–Sat 1 p.m.–12:30 a.m.; Sun 1–10 p.m. |
| Maxwell's Cigar Bar | 150 Towne Lake Parkway, Suite 158 | Cigars, beer and wine, with live entertainment on weekends | Mon–Thu 11 a.m.–10 p.m.; Fri–Sat 11 a.m.–11 p.m.; Sun noon–6 p.m. |
| Dive Georgia | 168 Towne Lake Parkway | Scuba instruction, gear sales, rentals, service and dive trips | Mon–Sat 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Sun noon–6 p.m. |
Taken together, the hours tell the story. On a Saturday, the strip opens at 10 a.m. and the arcade stays open until 12:30 a.m. The latest hours on the block belong to an arcade and a cigar bar, and neither of them sells anything you'd add to a grocery list.
The Blue Ghost runs on a flat fee. When the owners spoke with Voyage ATL in late 2025, an $18 pass covered a full day of play with no tokens, and a $70 monthly pass covered unlimited entry. The arcade has more than 50 arcade and pinball machines, consoles from the NES Classic through the PS5 and Switch 2, and more than 200 board games. Its calendar includes karaoke, Dungeons & Dragons and Puzzle Club, and it takes birthday parties and private rentals. Prices may have changed since that interview, so check the arcade's site for current rates.
Maxwell's goes back further. Owner Harvey Burkin dates the shop to 2010. In a 2017 conversation with Voyage ATL, he said the biggest difference between Maxwell's and its competitors was alcohol, since most cigar stores in Georgia either don't or can't sell it under local ordinances. He also described the shop's live entertainment on weekends.
Dive Georgia opens earliest and closes earliest, and it's more specialized than anything else on the block. It describes itself as a NAUI Career Development Center. It trains divers, sells and rents equipment, services gear and organizes dive trips.
What the New Buildings Add to the Daytime
The new district includes a 46,791-square-foot freestanding Publix and six more buildings, each one or two stories and up to 13,750 square feet. Urbanize Atlanta reported in late September that the 118,000-square-foot district was 79 percent leased months before construction wraps. The site sits just east of Interstate 575, where Towne Lake Parkway meets Woodstock Parkway, and its design draws on the area's historic mills.
The first wave of tenants, as reported by Urbanize Atlanta and Metro Atlanta CEO:
- Sydel's Coffee, a new independent concept from Woodstock residents, serving coffee, pastries and crepes
- Three Dollar Café, a neighborhood sports bar known for wings and drafts
- Super Chix Chicken & Custard, a fast-casual chain with nearly 50 locations in 10 states
- Club Pilates
- Petfolk, a veterinary clinic offering primary and urgent care
- E's Barber Shop, which has six locations in metro Atlanta
- Dentists at Woodstock Mill, a general dentistry practice that is part of PDS Health
- Allure Nail Bar, a full-service nail salon
Most of that list runs on appointments and errands: a dental cleaning, a vet visit, a haircut, a Pilates class, a grocery run. Only Sydel's Coffee comes from the same local-founder model as the old strip, and its menu of coffee, pastries and crepes points toward mornings. Three Dollar Café is the only new tenant that clearly overlaps with the evening crowd next door.
The timing comes in two steps. Tenants were expected to begin moving into the buildings this fall to prepare for opening. Urbanize Atlanta puts the district's debut in spring 2027, and Shopping Center Business says early 2027. No separate opening date has been announced for the Publix. For now, expect construction crews and buildout through the winter, with storefronts opening next year.
The Old Strip Is Getting Daytime Tenants Too
The renovated strip is changing in the same direction. Shopping Center Business reported that Tin Drum Asian Kitchen & Boba Tea Bar and barre3 will soon join the arcade, the cigar bar and the dive shop. A fitness studio and a fast-casual restaurant with boba tea add regular weekday reasons to visit a strip whose current tenants are all built around hobbies.
Neither has announced an opening date. Both fall under the same general schedule as the rest of the district.
Once both halves are open, a Saturday could start with a coffee from Sydel's and end with a game of pinball at The Blue Ghost, which is listed as open until 12:30 a.m. on Saturdays.
The Road Is Being Rebuilt Around the New Entrance
The biggest change you'll notice before any storefront opens is Towne Lake Parkway itself. The City of Woodstock's project announcement describes a $1.5 million widening between Woodstock Parkway and the Towne Lake Parkway/Mill Street roundabout. The design is built around the new shopping center:
- Two continuous eastbound lanes leading to the Mill Street roundabout, with the right lane serving as a dedicated exit onto Mill Street.
- Two westbound lanes, beginning at the entrance to the new shopping center.
- A dedicated left-turn lane for Waffle House and the Cherokee County Tax Commissioner's Office.
- A dedicated right-turn lane for westbound drivers turning onto Woodstock Parkway.
- Upgraded pedestrian crossings at the Woodstock Parkway intersection, connecting to new sidewalks built as part of the project.
The second item tells you how the city expects traffic to move here: the westbound road widens to two lanes right where shoppers will be pulling out of the new center. The city also says the work is coordinated with the Woodstock Mill District and the Lyndee Lane extension, so the road and the development are being planned as one project.
Bartow Paving is the contractor. Its contract gives it 365 consecutive days from a January 12, 2026 Notice to Proceed, so the contract period runs into January 2027. Funding comes from SPLOST VII and a grant and loan through the State Road and Tollway Authority's Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank program. The January date marks the end of the contract period. The city hasn't promised traffic will be back to normal by then. Even so, the contract period wraps up just a few months before the district's expected spring 2027 opening.
The new sidewalks and crossings at Woodstock Parkway will connect the old strip and the new buildings to the rest of the corridor on foot. That will make it possible to walk between the arcade, the cigar bar and the Publix.
The Corner Building Still Waiting for a Chef
One piece is still open. Connolly told Urbanize Atlanta that nine retail spaces remain available. One of them is a freestanding building on a corner of the site, meant for a chef-driven restaurant and still unleased as of the September announcement. Lavista Associates' Ed O'Connor and Mindy Elms are handling leasing.
Whoever signs for that building gets a spot next to a grocery store, a sports bar, a coffee shop and an arcade that has been open since 2021.
New tenants and storefronts change how a stretch of road feels day to day. If you live near Towne Lake Parkway and want to know how this corner's 2027 opening fits into your plans, the Woodstock specialists at HOME Luxury Real Estate follow these details closely and would be glad to talk them through with you.
