Trying to understand the maddnes that is Jimy Carter Blvd

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I always thought it would be a funny bit to do like a 2 minute news piece where you take Jimmy Carter up and down the road named for him and let him talk to some people and tour some of the buildings.

I just love the irony that the United States president that came from Georgia got one of the crappiest thoroughfares in the city named after him.

Was Jimmy Carter Blvd. ever decent? Maybe back in the 70s?

JCB (Jimmy Carter Boulevard) wasn't always one of the "crappiest" thoroughfares in Metro Atlanta.

Because of the opening of the massive Western Electric plant at the southwest corner of JCB and I-85 in 1972, JCB (then called Norcross Tucker Road) was the first hot area of suburban development in Gwinnett County back in the 1970's and early '80's before Gwinnett Place Mall opened....Back when many Atlantans thought of a then almost completely-rural Gwinnett County as being far-flung in the way that many Metro Atlantans think of Jackson County being far-flung today.

When Gwinnett Place Mall opened in 1984 and made Pleasant Hill Road the hot place to be in outer-suburban Northeast Metro Atlanta, JCB went into decline and never recovered.

Pleasant Hill Road and the Gwinnett Place Mall area remained the hot place in outer-suburban Northeast Metro Atlanta to be until the Mall of Georgia opened in 1999 and made the Buford area the latest hot place to be in outer-suburban Northeast Metro Atlanta.

[ATLTJL]

So do you guys think JCB can ever be gentrified as a hot "close-in suburb" like the Cumberland and Perimeter areas?

I've always thought that the area was perfectly situated, close enough to town to commute fairly easily and far enough out to afford decent housing and be slightly out of the city mix.

I've often thought about this, but felt that all of the heavy industry on the west side of I-85 would prevent the area from ever becoming desirable. It also seems to suffer from fast and cheap construction all around and doesn't have good bones that just need some TLC.

I can tell you that the townhouse that I rented off of Graves Road wasn't just dumpy because it was old. It was dumpy because every conceivable corner that possibly could have been cut during its construction was. At one time during 2009, you could pick up one of these townhomes for about the price of a new Camry....and I'm still not sure it would have been worth it.

I hate the area because of what people did to it with horrible construction, but I also love the area for how great the location is and I really did have a good time living there. It's cheap and more or less safe.

[cwkimbro]

I think it will certainly get nicer and in many small ways we are starting to see it now.

I don't believe it will ever be an edge city. The infrastructure isn't quite there. Gwinnett County really invested more for potential edge cities to be in Peachtree Corners and further up I-85 near the junction with 316 (north and South). That is the area of the county that has peak road access prior to road bottlenecks.

What I think will help the area is good solid development increases. Medium-term visions of the new movie studios, film school, hotel rises and the such are looking pretty good for the OFS Campus. That will certainly increase local restaurant and hotel demand in the area. There are actually many nearby aging hotel properties that could see a boost from such a project.

I'm also noticing many small things that many of original residents of the county will not particularly care for ourselves, but is nonetheless good news for the area. Several new strip malls that are multi-story and have office space seem to be doing well. They are mainly Asian-based businesses and hispanic businesses. A new Wal-Mart just replaced a deteriorating strip mall.

While none of this is typical gentrification, it is showing more money is coming into the area and demand is increasing.

If rent rates are increasing enough to build new strip malls, they will eventually be strong enough to warrant renovations to older properties at some point in time in the long-run. I wouldn't underestimate how much money some of these minority groups have either.

I agree with you about Graves Road. There are actually so many apartments in that area. They all look like typical apartment complexes, but there are so many of them in a concentrated place. I think it will permanently harm the schools and hurt desirability in the area.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

So do you guys think JCB can ever be gentrified as a hot "close-in suburb" like the Cumberland and Perimeter areas?

I've always thought that the area was perfectly situated, close enough to town to commute fairly easily and far enough out to afford decent housing and be slightly out of the city mix.

I've often thought about this, but felt that all of the heavy industry on the west side of I-85 would prevent the area from ever becoming desirable. It also seems to suffer from fast and cheap construction all around and doesn't have good bones that just need some TLC.

I can tell you that the townhouse that I rented off of Graves Road wasn't just dumpy because it was old. It was dumpy because every conceivable corner that possibly could have been cut during its construction was. At one time during 2009, you could pick up one of these townhomes for about the price of a new Camry....and I'm still not sure it would have been worth it.

I hate the area because of what people did to it with horrible construction, but I also love the area for how great the location is and I really did have a good time living there. It's cheap and more or less safe.

I used to live on Williams Road just off of Singleton Road and used to shop at the Kroger on Singleton Road and the Cub Foods that is now a Hong Kong Supermarket, so I'm familiar with the area and can relate exactly to what you are saying.

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

I think it will certainly get nicer and in many small ways we are starting to see it now.

I don't believe it will ever be an edge city. The infrastructure isn't quite there. Gwinnett County really invested more for potential edge cities to be in Peachtree Corners and further up I-85 near the junction with 316 (north and South). That is the area of the county that has peak road access prior to road bottlenecks.

What I think will help the area is good solid development increases. Medium-term visions of the new movie studios, film school, hotel rises and the such are looking pretty good for the OFS Campus. That will certainly increase local restaurant and hotel demand in the area. There are actually many nearby aging hotel properties that could see a boost from such a project.

I'm also noticing many small things that many of original residents of the county will not particularly care for ourselves, but is nonetheless good news for the area. Several new strip malls that are multi-story and have office space seem to be doing well. They are mainly Asian-based businesses and hispanic businesses. A new Wal-Mart just replaced a deteriorating strip mall.

While none of this is typical gentrification, it is showing more money is coming into the area and demand is increasing.

If rent rates are increasing enough to build new strip malls, they will eventually be strong enough to warrant renovations to older properties at some point in time in the long-run. I wouldn't underestimate how much money some of these minority groups have either.

I agree with you about Graves Road. There are actually so many apartments in that area. They all look like typical apartment complexes, but there are so many of them in a concentrated place. I think it will permanently harm the schools and hurt desirability in the area.

These are good points and good comments.

That is an excellent point that the coming OFS Campus (on the site of the old Western Electric plant which originally sparked growth in the area some 40+ years ago) will most likely have a positive effect on development in the Jimmy Carter Boulevard corridor.

Though like cwkimbro also stated, there is more infrastructure in place for areas like Peachtree Corners and the currently-declining Gwinnett Place Mall area to be potential edge cities.

Gwinnett County actually has (unfunded) plans to build a high-capacity passenger rail transit line between the Doraville MARTA Station and the Gwinnett Center area (and likely on up to the Mall of Georgia/Buford area) with a stop planned to be just off of JCB at the site of the new OFS development:
http://www.gwinnettvillage.com/wp-co...compressed.jpg

Along with the OFS development, a rail transit station is something that could also potentially help to spur some redevelopment of the Jimmy Carter Blvd corridor.

[sedimenjerry]

When my parents were dating/married in the late 70s and early 80s they remember JCB being a decently nice area and kinda the edge of the suburbs. They didn't want to get too much farther out at the time at risk of being in the middle of nowhere! It's rather unbelievable for me. They actually used to live off JCB just north of 85. Well, technically I did too but we moved when I was just 6 months old to Lilburn for a few years. Of course today the area is much much different. Just looking at aerial imagery on google you can see all the industry from Peachtree Corners to a couple miles south then again in Dekalb County in Tucker near 78 (where I worked for a summer). And JCB turns into Holcomb Bridge road and eventually goes on to Roswell. It's a major thoroughfare. Lots of business goes on there but the residents in that area aren't economically as well off as others in the county. Hopefully there will be some sort of upturn in the area. Maybe working its way south from Norcross and Ptree Corners.

[thrudaluknglass]

all of these are great answers,thank you