Panera Bread, The Rusty Zipper To Open in Downtown Canton

CANTON, GA -- Two new retail spots are on their way to downtown Canton.

That's according to Atlanta Communities Realtor Randy Saxon, who helped HIP Acquisitions LLC in its purchase of the former Canton textile mill offices and grammar school in the central business district.

Saxon said The Rusty Zipper will open up shop in the former Canton grammar school facility while Panera Bread is still trying to decide whether it will move into the former textile mill offices or into a new building that would be constructed on site.

Saxon said The Rusty Zipper, owned by the folks who run women's clothing store Whistle Britches in Rome, could be up and running by late fall. The timeline is unclear for Panera, as that depends on how fast the company decides on a permanent home.

The Rusty Zipper is a rustic boutique clothing, gift and accessory store slated to open in Calhoun. Panera Bread is a fast-casual eatery that offers soups, sandwiches, salads, pastries and coffees.

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Saxon said he has a "long list" of companies developers are in talks with about the possibility of open on the roughly four-acre site the city acquired from the Cherokee County Board of Education.

Some of those include nice "upscale" restaurants, he noted. Developers are in the midst of finalizing the site plan to submit to the city. Once it's approved, they will release those details to the public, Saxon said.

"Everyone has been waiting to see if this was really going to happen," he said.

The city of Canton late last week closed on an agreement with HIP Acquisitions LLC to sell the buildings for $600,000.

Both buildings were formerly owned by the school board, but the city of Canton obtained ownership of the property in a land swap deal struck in 2015.

The Cherokee County School District utilized the old textile mill offices as its main central offices operations. Dubbed Building A by the school district, the basement level of the two-floor facility was closed several years ago for health, structural and safety concerns.

Building B, the former grammar school, was renovated more than 30 years ago for office use with no preservation of historic details and was closed seven years ago due to similar, the school district has previously said. Both buildings were recommended for demolition by former Cherokee Schools Superintendent Dr. Frank Petruzielo, so Canton put forth the land swap deal in a bid to save the buildings.

That land deal approved last year included the city swapping 19.78 acres of land located along Bluffs Parkway in exchange for the property that’s home to the historic buildings. Under that deal, Canton retained about 4.19 acres that would be used as the future site for a fire station. Additionally, the school district would construct a shared access drive to be used by the city in relation to the fire station as well as the district for its operations.

The school district is using the Bluffs property to build a new administrative complex for its operations.

Saxon said he is excited about what's in store for the future of Canton and what the redevelopment could mean for the city.

“If our plans follow through and we don’t see any reasons why they shouldn't, then it should be a dynamic change for Canton," he added.

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