Summary Overview:
“Atlanta’s Koreatown Has Been Moving North for Years — Here’s Why”:
- Historical Center: Atlanta’s original Koreatown was in Doraville along Buford Highway, which became the hub for Korean immigrants in the 1980s–1990s.
- Shift to Duluth: Over the past two decades, Korean businesses and residents have moved north toward Duluth and Suwanee in Gwinnett County.
- Economic Drivers: The migration was fueled by more affordable commercial real estate, larger spaces, and better school systems in northern suburbs.
- Cultural Growth: Duluth now hosts the Southeast’s largest Koreatown, with restaurants, cafés, K-beauty shops, and Korean-owned clinics thriving along Pleasant Hill Road and I-85.
- Small-Business Evolution: Many original Doraville restaurants have closed or adapted menus to appeal to broader, non-Korean customers; others sold to new owners and relocated north.
- Real Estate Impact: Korean entrepreneurs often buy and sell both their businesses and the properties, turning the area into a lucrative commercial investment zone.
- Population Expansion: Gwinnett County’s Asian-American population nearly tripled since 2000, driven by strong schools, lower taxes, and safe suburban communities.
- Corporate Investments: Major South Korean companies like Hyundai and SK Battery America brought billions in investments and thousands of jobs, further attracting Korean families.
- Cultural Mainstreaming: K-food, K-beauty, and K-pop popularity continue to expand awareness of Korean culture, making Atlanta a key southeastern hub for Korean entertainment and cuisine.
- Future Outlook: Doraville remains symbolic but less central, while Duluth, Suwanee, and Buford are now the core of Georgia’s vibrant and growing Koreatown economy.
Doraville remains symbolic but less central, while Duluth, Suwanee, and Buford are now the core of Georgia’s vibrant and growing Koreatown economy.Atlanta’s creat town has been moving North for years here’s why yes that’s the title of this article and I’m going to cover it in this video because it just got released with the Atlanta Journal Constitution a week ago and it’s got some pretty good information for those thinking about moving to Atlanta who are of Korean descent or just interested in Korea Town in general may want to know about this if you haven’t already found out yourself hey I’m Tim Tran with Tim Tran Holmes I’m a local estate agent here in metro Atlanta especially covering the North Metro Atlanta suburbs where I’ve done a lot of topics not just related to Kat Town although you may have seen the viral one about the duth Vlog tour that I did a few years ago but also on all kinds of other topics such as neighborhoods local communities great new construction communities to check out the pros and cons of living in different cities and so on well this is one where I’m just going to read the article literally line by line verbatim and just inject some of my opinion in insight as I’m reading it so let’s go Atlanta’s Kore town has been moving North for years here’s why dville used to be the center of the Region’s vibrant Korean Community now that Center is in delute yes that is true I remember back in the 1980s 1990s uh not that I went to Atlanta and visited during that time not until maybe late ’90s early 2000s did I visit but even at that time I noticed that there was a shift happening where the Koreans that had established a Korea Town Atlanta’s first being in dville started to shift to duth and for various reasons that you’re going to see in this article so let’s stay tuned so here’s a picture here it just shows uh a restaurant with people eating duu gong bang I have not actually been there but yeah that is it looks like in duth and there’s so many restaurants guys off of Pleasant Hill Road uh so many that keep popping up it’s hard to keep track of you’ll see that in a lot of the videos that I’ve done um such as the Vlog tours some of those restaurants are already outdated even though it’s been one or two years either they’ve closed shop or they’ve moved to a different location or a new restaurant’s popped up in that same location where the previous business closed so it’s is a very competitive uh Market but there’s always opportunity for small businesses so starting out the article says sangu y 67 watched favorably as a couple from Buckhead enjoyed jong a spicy noodle soup for Saturday lunch at her Korean barbecue restaurant huan in dville adding the Chinese influence soup to the menu was a survival move she said as Korean restaurants disappear from the stretch of Buford Highway near I 285 that was once the center of gravity for Georgia’s small but bustling Korean Community yes it was while we specialized in k barbq a lot of customers started looking for Korean style Chinese cuisine when yining closed she said referring to a beloved but now closed restaurant nearby ye is also catering to people who with tastes for Japanese foods with Korean influences there aren’t that many Korean style Japanese restaurants anymore so we also added a Japanese box set she said speaking of Japanese food I have a video that I did on that and there are some amazing uh restaurants and one of the uh Atlanta’s first made I believe in the 1950s it opened up theato restaurant uh you should definitely check it out it’s going on Buford Highway in dorville was Atlanta’s Premier Korea Town for decades where Korean Grocers chefs and clo years open shop in low slung shopping centers in the 1980s businesses along a 3M stretch of the corridor proliferated over the next couple decades as the world’s attention turned to Atlanta for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games and has South Korea strengthened its political and business ties with the US and Georgia so again I was maybe about almost 10 years old when the Atlanta um Olympics were here the Summer Olympics and uh I was living in Montgomery Alabama at the time but a lot of Koreans albeit a very small community that were from there and as well as Birmingham Alabama we would take trips up to Atlanta to see the creat town on the weekends we would literally block off our entire weekend to go drive there to hang out in the Hmart shopping center uh and shop for a bunch of goods so I remember during that time late 90s me and my family when we started finding out more about the growth there we would take visits here often now only a handful of Korean restaurants are left as Merchants close shop and take their businesses and your favorite Korean food farther north into Gwynette County duth about 10 Mi to the north now boasts the largest K Town in Georgia and the south east encompassing all aspects of marketable Korean culture from restaurants serving K Food aesthetic cafes playing K-pop and skin care clinics promoting K Beauty and we have aiom inisfree Tony moly a lot of other products of skin care that are here for sale and available uh for people that are into it and we’ve got a lot of laser treatment clinics skincare clinics uh that are korean-owned businesses one that was in duth that now moved to John’s Creek had to find the name but that one my wife actually attends uh ghes to often and she loves it there and the business continues to thrive as it’s tapped into a Chinese market in John’s Creek now a new restaurant pops up in duth every morning you wake up said ye who owns several restaurants in duth Swan and dorville and more continue to crop up along I 85 towards Swan as Koreans settle farther north into Gwinnet County home to the highest percentage of Koreans in the Southeast then there’s a a picture there of of the uh the business sign of Ashi market so we’ve got four HMS an Ashi market and mega Mart um and several farmers markets that aren’t Korean owned but those are International Foods as well uh this one Ashi Market is on exit 109 old Peach Tree Road the south side of swan so uh this is actually one of my favorite areas to visit and live um as opposed to what most people know about which is Hmart which is also an amazing place place it goes on to say the Atlanta Journal Constitution spoke with about a dozen Korean business owners residents and real estate experts who pointed to a multitude of factors for the shift including commercial real estate affordability and space quality of school systems and a booming Korean population and K-pop craze that has driven demand for Korean food to new heights well I’m a real estate expert so I can chime in myself uh yeah there there is a lot of growth um it it continues to grow continues to expand and literally there are shops popping up I feel like every week even there’s one lady that I’ve become close with as far as friends and a business uh relationship and it was the the the Aima the lady who owned soon’s Bakery in swanie uh close to the Hmart there and she just sold her business along with a couple other bakeries to another owner uh now now who owns the store and they revamped remodeled inside it looks like a brand new coffee shop you can’t even recognize what it looked like before a different seats different pendant lighting and even some of their their food and bakery items are different they’ve got this kind of H Mochi uh dough flavored uh Bagel that that they have there and it’s it’s really good in a lot of this commercial space you own it you live in it uh the value continues to go up so once you sell your business you you’re also selling the real estate if you own it if you lease it then of course you’re not going to be able to make a profit off the sale but it’s very much lucrative in terms of people are constantly looking to buy out businesses because they know the overhead and the cost associated with growing the business from the beginning from scratch so there are people that are also being acquired uh on a on a regular basis the original Korea Town Korean immigrants began to develop off Buford Highway in dville around the same time Georgia’s Department of Economic Development opened its first office and soul in 1985 they found affordable land and opportunity to start their businesses once word spread of some landlords willing to rent commercial space to immigrants one of those landlords was Halper Enterprises which owns a large portion of the commercial space on the corridor my father was an immigrant to this country and I believe no one appreciates opportunity in the United States more than immigrants do Halper Enterprises chairman and CEO Jack Hal said we were willing to take chances on people who did not have an impressive credits history but were willing to work hard to make the businesses succeed and give their family a chance to a new life in America it’s it’s funny hearing that part about imp not an impressive credit history when we all know you need credit in order to borrow to get loans in this country what comes to mind when I read that part is Metro City Bank is a very popular I guess you could call it goo korean-american Asian Centric Bank where a lot of non-qm which is a non-qualified mortgage loan uh is offered there it’s not illegal by any means this is a different type of loan where you don’t necessarily have to have credit you can go off of bank statements and the history of your business if you had a prior business or just your income alone so uh there are options here for everybody when it comes to starting a small business and then there’s a picture of Korean Chinese restaurant Yin Jing off of Buford Highway see I I know all the Korean markets well but that one I don’t know too well because it’s it’s in dorville and I I don’t visit dorville as often as I used to um but I could see that that is a street off of Buford Highway it looks like it just from the the Blue Roof building and so yeah it says as Buford highways demographic shifted from a predominantly white blue collared workers at norville’s General Motors Assembly Plant to Immigrant entrepreneurs Halper stitched together a plan to create Georgia’s first Korea Town after Los Angeles’s Kat town in the 1990s the critical elements I was told from touring La Koreatown was a bank that catered to the Immigrant Community a large grocery store so I recruited the Buford Highway Farmers Market and restaurants he said if you had those elements it would become the Immigrant shopping area for Atlanta and that’s what came to pass I can attest to this 100% I remember uh I believe the first Hmart not not in dville actually um although that’s where the first Kat town was the first Hmart was off of Pleasant Hill Road in exit 10 four of duth and I remember once that got established all these other korean-owned businesses popped up and sprung up surrounding it and that’s really what made people gravitate towards that area because if they can get their Korean groceries then they can go and stop by the other shops thereby giving them business more immigrant communities including chinese vietnamese and Latino flocked to an 8mile stretch of the corridor from roughly Claremont Road to Jimmy Carter Boulevard when the 1996 Summer Olympic Games put Atlanta on the world map Buford Highway became the Immigrant Hub of the South it wasn’t long before Korean businesses like gimchi mangawan which would later become the K barbecue chain Iron Age after moving to duth began to look for more space and affordability elsewhere that’s cool I didn’t even know that was the previous name of Iron Age it’s one of my favorite cream barbecues some say the most Americanized it’s the best priced you got the Iron Age steak there some of the best meat um some may not like the environment looks kind of club like with a bunch of screens of K-pop and they have the the black lights but uh it’s definitely worth checking out we ran out of room Halper said Real Estate tends to be more affordable the further away you get from the city so it was sort of a Natural Evolution for businesses to move North on Buford Highway and peachree Boulevard that that is a very good point made and what I find interesting is uh my dad so my mom is Korean my dad is American I love the way my dad put it one day years ago he made the comment said Tim wherever Koreans are that area turns to Gold so Koreans wherever they go they flourish and they bring in more business and more job opportunities not just to the Korean Community but just to the whole American population as a whole here in metro Atlanta it’s it’s truly remarkable one thing that Koreans do is they’re they’re smart business people so they know the next step where to go and so I think the fact that they already could eye Deluth back in the early 2000s and 90s as the hot spot where real estate retail and office space was a lot cheaper then that’s when they started to see a huge wave happened faster than expected now this is cool I like this diagram here this illustration gwet’s creat Town moves North so you can see here uh the center of the Atlanta metros Korean population has moved farther Northeast according to AJC so you can see like the darker that color is the dark purple that’s where the U higher density of Korean population percentage that there is and then it evolves in 2018 you can see more areas like in buur starting to turn dark orange more areas where the the the dark purple are turning darker purple and then in 2023 which is the most recent uh two years ago man you could just see that spread out so there’s some areas now this is what I find interesting there’s less purple areas uh in 2023 than in previous years so it looks like Koreans are moving out uh not necessarily moving out of Atlanta or out of the state of Georgia but more so it looks like they’re spreading out out so they continue to hold a huge residential you know Powerhouse here as well as just spreading out amongst the different suburbs and Buford has been one we got the Mall of Georgia there so it’s become more and more congested um I had one client who bought a house in Buford she actually read this article and she posted online saying I hope we get an Hmart in Buford that would be a game changer then I would love living here for the rest of my life um which she already loves living there but that would that would make things blow up in terms of real estate people wanting to swarm that area because it’s already cheaper than the other areas like Swan uh and then now they can have their Hmart as well moving up Gwinette place is a cluster of mostly Korean restaurants and businesses concentrated in 2000 Acres near its namesake Mall just off I 85 in duth from Korean traditional Spas called Jim jangs to supermarkets and cafes Gwynette place is the center of today’s Korea Town the Gwynette Place Community improvement district was created in 2006 to Revitalize business and improve infrastructure and Public Safety it is now one of six self- taxing cids in Gwynette County and home to about 7% of all jobs in the county Joe Allen executive director of the Gwinette Place CID pointed out pointed to the country’s good government fairly low taxes excellent schools great infrastructure they encouraged both families and businesses to settle up north around the time the C was created that’s a good quote there and I will attest to that as well uh who who doesn’t want want um low taxes and a good government excellent school that’s everybody but especially Koreans and especially when it comes to uh low taxes and excellent schools you can look at it like this Fon county is the highest for taxes then Gwynette then foresy why do I mentioned those Three Counties well they’re some of the most populated uh top top three populated actually um but some of them have higher taxes like North fton John’s Creek which is the best area to live um for many reasons you can see my other videos won’t go into it here uh but people don’t like the taxes there necessarily so people are moving to guette where it’s cheaper and then in some parts of North Swani you start touching the southern part of foresy where you’ve got even less taxes there and Great Schools Lambert High School North gwet High School has been hugely popular because people continue to shift East because they’re getting priced out of Alpharetta and John’s Creek which are the hottest areas to live but Swan still being uh equally as attractive but for less price on a home with less taxes in North fton and still have nine or 10 out of 10 schools H speaking of which here it says 13 out of the 15 top ranked public high schools in Georgia according to school ranking site Niche are located in gwet and neighboring North fton and for South counties didn’t even read that sentence and I was already talking about it the quality schools were a draw to Immigrant parents raised in a society that values education many members of the Korean Community told the AJC everything is is there to grow and have a business that will Thrive and that’s what’s attracted so many people of varying nationalities from across the country in the world Allan said and uh there’s a one part of the Korea Town there and Swani and the demand for Korean food and culture is only growing thanks to a rapidly growing Korean population the Asian-American population in GW county has nearly tripled since 2000 so there you go in 2 42,000 and this isn’t just Koreans this is all Asian Americans so Chinese Japanese Vietnamese and so on 2010 it doubled and then uh went up even more from there in 2020 you know it feels like there’s more than this to be honest but I mean yeah this is this is huge population which is funny I grew up in Montgomery where there was only a 100 Koreans there the Hyundai car plant came in in 2002 brought in tons of Koreans now there’s about 5,000 still nothing compared to this census in Atlanta but that just shows how many jobs and people move due to Hyundai can you imagine why so many people move here because there are so many Korean businesses up in Commerce there’s Samsung Eevee plant and then down in West Point Georgia there’s um the Kia car plant car factory which I know that’s away from Atlanta but continues to spring up all kinds of you know companies that are kind of like a sister company to those companies like Auto Park companies and such as it and things like that so and of course restaurants and Retail and so forth South Korean conglomerates are also bringing significant Investments to Georgia with Hyundai’s 7.6 billion meta plant near Savannah that’s cool I actually did not know about that I just know about the one in mon gy because that’s where I’m from and expected to employ 8,500 workers and then there’s the SK battery America’s 2.6 billion EV battery plant um employs more than 3,000 workers in Commerce so SK um that’s who I wanted to mention not Samsung just 45 minutes north of gnet place I have a client that bought a house in hushon and he commutes to work in Commerce at the SK plant we hear from our hotels that a lot of times Executives and family members on the weekends will come to in at Sonesta Hotel and then come to Gwynette place for their dining and entertainment before they head back to the Automotive plant in Savannah Allan said to track creat Town’s growth one only has to look at Paris begot a popular Korean Cafe chain Bas ins so with with more 200 locations in more than 20 states in the US Paris Baguette open its first Georgia location in dville in 2013 it’s funny I I moved to Georgia in 2016 and I remember going to that knowing that that was the only Parish baget at the time traversed 10 Mi up I 85 to duth in 2016 okay and I remember when I moved in 2016 this second location opened up and it was a much bigger uh square footage space off of Satellite Boulevard uh most recently open locations further North near Buford and Swani which is home to the census track with the highest percentage of Koreans in the state Nick Paris beets America Chief Operating Officer called georgean exciting Market where the franchise plans to open 15 new locations over the next several years in areas including alphar redo Johns Creek coming in Savannah that’s a good piece of information also I didn’t know that I just see when they’re open and that’s when I find out the latest there was one off of Buford Drive near the Mall of Georgia on the Lawrenceville side of I85 where andred racing and top golf are there is a Paris bagette there and then the most recently opened one there’s one off of exit 109 right across from ASI Market there’s a brand new apartment complex there and in their retail space there’s a Paris baget there I love that one because of the location and the the atmosphere inside in the space got to check those out we were definitely in tune with monitoring population growth up and cominging markets and transitions of businesses in various areas across the US he said all of those factors help us make informed decisions in terms of trade area and site selection surviving in a disappearing Korea Town despite the unprecedented growth in Korean population and business in gwick County some business owners still see opportunity in dorville original Crea Town there’s another picture off of uh Buford Highway in dville y the owner of K barbecue restaurant Han Ilan said the key to surviving along Buford Highway is to tailor the menu and service to non- Koreans who make up about 75% of her customers yes that is true like I mentioned about Iron Age is it’s Americanized and I think that’s part of the reason why it’s so successful yes there are Korean businesses that cater to primarily Korean customers but for something such as a barbecue place it has to reach a larger audience to uh Pro procure a longer longevity of of success so that I totally understand we’re in a generation where if there’s anything that includes the letter K people are intrigued you said this makes me laugh because right across the street from me there is this uh Beauty Supply shop called K Beauty I still have not gone there but my mother-in-law who came to visit from Korea last year every time we passed by there she asked a question is that korean-owned and the first reason why we thought that all of us thought that was because of the K the letter k in front of beauty I’m going to have to check that out very soon it goes on to say she’s referring to the global obsession over K barbecue kramas K Beauty and the biggest K of all K-pop Atlanta has become a major hub for K-pop fans is the only Southeast stop for many K-pop concerts in the US spreading awareness of Korean culture and driving demand for Korean food I personally have gone to State Farm Marina downtown Atlanta where they had black pink perform and mamamu uh and a couple other big names that I I didn’t attend J Park um some other ones too but uh you could bet there are plenty of concerts for K-pop here since taking over Han uan in 2020 ye has added Korean dishes more familiar to westerners like the spicy noodle soup Jang pong black bean noodles called jangan and spicy rice cases called Tui to the menu the prestigious Michelin guide took notice adding Hanan to the list of recommended restaurants which has boosted sales you know I have not actually been to hanu I’m going to have to check it out Mindy cim mosart Bakery manager in dville similarly attributes her Cafe success to the diversity in customers from Korean seniors who stop by every Sunday after Mass to a group of Americans that convenes every Saturday to learn Korean the fact that we become a kind of hub for anyone interested in Korea Korean food and even the Korean language is Meaningful she said the Multicultural aspect of Buford Highway is what makes it have more opportunity for business so very cool story I’ll make it short uh about four years ago so this is like still during Co my wife and I we went to uh was it white windmill which is a korean-american owned Korean bakery and coffee shop off of Buford Highway so this was in dville going in line with the article I went there we sat down played a car game sip in some and then I hear this voice behind me saying hey Tim is that you and I thought wait a minute who who is that I turn I look and it’s a guy maybe in his mid 20s to late 20s he looks familiar but I don’t remember exactly who he was or what his name was but apparently he remembered me and then said hey you look familiar who are you and
