Target plans to reopen its “Buckhead South” store in Lindbergh Plaza in mid-November, more than five months after it shut down due to fire damage from vandals amid the George Floyd protests.
Ronald Brown, a Target group vice president, said in a letter issued through a spokesperson that the store at 2539 Piedmont Road will continue to serve community needs, among which is “to promote social justice and racial equity.” The store will “support local Black-owned brands” and add more of them, he said. The store has been remodeled, the letter said.
During largely peaceful protests that began downtown the night of May 29 about the police killing of Floyd in Minnesota, some looting and vandalism came to Buckhead. Starting May 30, the Target on Piedmont Road was repeatedly struck by fire from vandals, leading the Minnesota-based company to announce a preemptive closure of it and several other stores.
The looting of a Target store in Minneapolis featured prominently in early coverage of the riots there and made the chain vulnerable to looting elsewhere in the country. In the Buckhead looting, another Target at 3535 Peachtree Road in Lenox Marketplace was hit. It has since reopened.