East Atlanta Village

Big changes are coming to East Atlanta Village. The East Atlanta Treehouse, the neighborhood's hip-hop club and bar, will not be part of them. Not by choice. Not even after its owner agreed to pay a 75 percent rent hike to new landlords.

Ex-owner King Shands, 39, and his sister, ex-administrative assistant Brittney Wilson, 30, are devastated and bewildered. The Treehouse officially shuttered its doors in July after talks fell apart with new landlords Canvas Companies LLC.

Shands and Wilson are still heartbroken after the “rollercoaster of loss,” Shands says, “We lost everything. Our club, our livelihood, our artistic community.”

The loss came on the heels of the death of Shands’ brother, Andre, better known as the underground hip-hop performer “D.R.E.S. Tha Beatnik,” who passed away June 9 after a long battle with kidney disease. Andre often performed at the Treehouse and supported up-and-coming artists who would appear there.

Canvas Companies is the new landlord, after purchasing four large buildings on the north side of Flat Shoals Avenue in February 2024. The area includes about 17 tenants and covers about 30,000 square feet of rental space.

The Treehouse isn’t the only spot to vanish from the funky, eclectic strip of East Atlanta Village. Also gone: vintage furnishings store Kaboodle, the international food alley, We Suki Suki, and a massage spa, among others.

Treehouse owner Shands says he negotiated for months with Canvas Companies but feels the real estate firm “kept moving the goalposts.” Wilson says Canvas demanded to see profit margins ranging from ten to 13 times the raised monthly rent price. She added that, given a little more time, the Treehouse could have met those projections, and she provided every bit of paperwork Canvas requested.

Wilson points out that they were willing to pay the steep rent increase, which upped their monthly rent to more than $6,000. Shands maintains that negotiations never got nasty with Canvas, which only adds to his confusion. “We never had a toxic relationship” with Canvas, he insists.

The Treehouse opened as a hip-hop club from December 2024 to July 2025, and also served as a private event space since 2021. But Shands has been associated with the space for over a decade, as he served as general manager of The Union, which predated the Treehouse, in the same building. For him, his long tenure in the building makes the loss even more heartbreaking. Running the Treehouse was “the high point of my life,” Shands acknowledges, adding that Treehouse was a true family-run business, with his cousin serving as bar manager and his retired mother and niece picking up shifts behind the bar. They even briefly launched an online petition asking Canvas to give them a new lease or more time to relocate.

Canvas Companies managing partners Michael Garber and Benjamin McLoughlin emphasize that the Treehouse’s lease expired in December 2024, several months before they purchased the property. That “is a bad situation” for any potential tenant, McLoughlin notes. Both Garber and McLoughlin refused to further comment on the Treehouse, adding that it’s company policy not to publicly discus lease negotiations.

So how will the new Canvas Companies ownership of such a large chunk of East Atlanta Village’s commercial landscape impact the once-scrappy Village? That remains to be seen. McLoughlin said the Canvas makeover now includes new HVAC systems, new roofs, sidewalk improvements and better lighting for parking areas. Also, Garber points out that several longtime tenants chose to stay, even with rent increases, including Park Pet Supply, Nectar Yoga, The Pub at EAV, and East Atlanta Thai and Sushi restaurant. They remain tight-lipped about new possible tenants, saying, “we will roll our new tenant announcements in fall 2025 and into early 2026,” Garber offers. “We were drawn to East Atlanta’s culture and want to bring tenants that can be ‘additives’ to what is already there. We aren’t looking to change everything. Just enhance what already exists.”

McLoughlin adds, “What drew us to the Village is its authenticity. We look for authentic, walkable, unique properties in Atlanta.”

Canvas recently spearheaded the makeover of the  Poncey-Highland mall including the renovations on the former Highland Inn & Ballroom Lounge, now known as Otto’s. Both partners point to that project as an example of what can be expected in the East Atlanta Village.

As for Shands and Wilson, they are searching for a new club location in the Edgewood area. Shands said they don’t want to lease and get burned again. This time, they are looking to purchase a building for a new club, where their underground hip-hop community can thrive. —CL—