Once the center of Gwinnett County’s retail market, the Gwinnett Place mall and its surrounding area have fallen on hard times due to the real estate downturn and the emergence of competing malls. But the mall may yet revive if the Gwinnett Place Community Improvement District (CID) has its way. The Gwinnett Place CID has just released its “ACTivate Gwinnett Place” master plan, which calls for a redevelopment of the mall area into a “multi-modal green corridor” that draws inspiration from the Atlanta BeltLine.
A Slow Decline
When it opened in 1984, the Gwinnett Place mall quickly became a shopping Mecca. But in the mid-1990s, competing malls like the Mall of Georgia and Discover Mills (now known as Sugarloaf Mills) sprang up and lured away Gwinnett Place consumers. Online commerce also sapped the mall’s business, as did the general trend of retailers’ moving away from malls to more urban, street-level concepts. By the mid-2000s, Gwinnett Place’s retail anchors started to abandon ship, and the mall’s occupancy eventually declined to a nadir of 40 percent.
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New Ownership
Since owner Moonbeam Capital Investments bought the mall property for $13.5 million in 2013, the mall has built up its occupancy to 60 percent, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Many of the tenants are local retailers who lack a web presence, but some major retailers—like Forever 21, Victoria’s Secret, and Foot Locker—remain.
Moonbeam, which owns about a dozen other malls, said in April that it would like to begin redeveloping Gwinnett Place by adding more restaurants to the outside of the building, much like Cumberland Mall has done. In subsequent phases of redevelopment, Moonbeam would like to add green space, offices, a hotel and residences on the property. Among the ideas on Moonbeam’s table is leasing an empty big-box space as a medical facility and demolishing part of the mall.
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But such changes could take years, especially since all of the mall’s landowners—which include its anchors, who own their buildings—must agree before anything is built, Moonbeam CEO Steven Maksin has said. The Gwinnett Place CID is ready to move on, with or without the mall itself.
Moving Forward
The Gwinnett Place CID has been working for 12 months with stakeholders, business owners, planners and consultants on its ACTivate Gwinnett Place plan, says the Gwinnett Daily Post. The plan includes the Gwinnett Place mall—which is more than one million square feet—and surrounding retail businesses. It is supported by funding from Atlanta Regional Commission and the National Association of Retailers.
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The plan envisions the demolition of some vacant retail buildings and the development of apartment buildings connected to parks and walking and biking trails, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reports. According to the Gwinnett Daily Post, some of the master plan’s most notable features include:
- The replacement of the existing intersection of Pleasant Hill Road and Satellite Boulevard with a huge roundabout that will encompass a park, plaza, small buildings, and new waterfront park space and trails. This effort would necessitate the demolition of some of the businesses at the four corners of the existing intersection.
- The conversion of existing detention ponds on the southwest side of the mall into three lakes with an amphitheater and walking paths. The plan would expand the ponds’ capacity while transforming them into a public amenity
- A new walking trail that would connect the mall with McDaniel Farm Park through an elevated bridge.
- The construction of a grand promenade on the northwest side of the mall property.
- Adding more green space at the mall.
- Streetscape improvements along Mall Boulevard, Market Street and Gwinnett Place Drive.
The Gwinnett CID has released a video to explain and advance the master plan.
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Exploring Feasibility
The Gwinnett Place CID has taken the next step to making the master plan a reality by issuing requests for proposals seeking firms willing to explore the feasibility of several ideas:
- Creating more connectivity between the nearby McDaniel Farm Park and the Gwinnett Place area
- Streetscape enhancements along Pleasant Hill Road and Satellite Boulevard
- Improvements along Mall Boulevard and Gwinnett Place Drive
- Intersection improvements at Pleasant Hill Road and Satellite Boulevard
Will It Work?
Statistics show that Gwinnett is populated by a well-educated, middle-class workforce and has residential neighborhoods filled with the millennial and GenX populations that many communities covet, notes the Post. This demographic is drawn to walkable, mixed-use developments with plenty of green space—just like the master plan envisions. The area lacks MARTA service and thus the transit options that younger populations prioritize, but if the Gwinnett Place CID can convince residents and businesses to overlook that shortcoming and to support its ambitious plans, a languishing Gwinnett Place district may yet spring back to life.
Blog contributed by Tim Moresco, Senior Vice President with Cresa Atlanta. Tim has over 25 years’ experience in the Atlanta real estate market with a speciality in commercial office and healthcare real estate. Tim resides in Gwinnett county. For more information on the Gwinnett Place redevelopment plans, contact Tim at 404.446.1595 or tmoresco@cresa.com.