Gwinnett Place Mall [Photo Heavy] (Atlanta, North Atlanta: condo, buy, theatre)

[Stormhammer]

I recall seeing one mall doing this, but I think it would be a cool idea to revamp the upper floors to condos/apartments, leave the ground floor for items like bodega's, restaurants, etc - redo the parking lot(s) into parks and other walkable/mixed use type areas.

[coolieandre]

Very sad!...But hey, that Tepanyaki and Sears is still going strong...lol. I used to work at that Macys, Sears and Pacific sunwear (2003-2008). Gwinnett Place used to be the mall, but this is a national issue. They gotta redevelop the entire mall property to include parking lots into an intimate mixed used development. That's the trend now... I don't know what that owner "Moonbeam Capital" is doing, but I've heard they have things in the works...We shall see....

[Pemgin]

I love strolling down the memory lane of Gwinnett Place. There was that McDonald's at the main entrance for a while with the sketchy bathroom where you could buy coke.

[ATLTJL]

The Gwinnett Place CID has a lot of great ideas for the area, which is actually still a thriving retail district by a lot of measures (Mall Corners is doing very well).

The problem is they can't really do anything to the land owned by the mall, and Moonbeam Capital is not being a good corporate citizen to the area. They were one of the worst buyers Simon could have sold to. They haven't done diddly squat and all of their ideas sound like making the mall look like Greenbriar Mall and turning it into a permanent underclass of an area. I hope they go bankrupt before they have the opportunity to screw things up even worse.

[DJDeadParrot]

I was actually just in GPM yesterday [because it has the only Payless Shoe store within about 10 miles of where I live]. Granted, it was mid-week, but it was rather spooky to see it so empty. Reminded me a lot of the notoriously-derelict Century III Mall near Pittsburgh.

Now that I'm looking up each mall, they're oddly identical in a lot of ways. Both have almost exactly the same retail square footage, peaked at 5 anchor tenants, and each opened within 5 years of each other in the early 80s. Notably, though, Gwinnett Place wasn't built atop a mountain of slag.

[coolieandre]

Ugh, even the signage they did for the mall recently is just gross! Moonbeam needs to go!

[tikigod311]

Originally Posted by DJDeadParrot

Now that I'm looking up each mall, they're oddly identical in a lot of ways. Both have almost exactly the same retail square footage, peaked at 5 anchor tenants, and each opened within 5 years of each other in the early 80s. Notably, though, Gwinnett Place wasn't built atop a mountain of slag.

Owned by the same people too.

Moonbeam Capital Investments ("MCI") was established to raise capital to purchase non-performing properties and non-performing loans collateralized by real estate assets. MCI has the objective to achieve long term capital appreciation by investing in real estate related projects in the United States. With over 50 properties nationwide in both commercial and residential real estate, MCI has become an industry leader in purchasing distressed real properties and non-performing loans.

Our Properties - Moonbeam Capital Investments LLC

[atltechdude]

Originally Posted by Gulch

Mall of Georgia and Sugarloaf Mills diluted the county's retail market.

That and Amazon/online shopping continuing to cause an overall decline in retail.

We're now basically at the point where there are more retail stores than there is demand for retail sales. So fewer retail locations are going to be successful because they have to compete for a smaller pool of retail buyers.

[arjay57]

Some interesting comments from the mall's new owners.

Gwinnett Place Mall: New owners unveil plans to pursue new model - North Atlanta Business Post

[DJDeadParrot]

Originally Posted by AtlantaMove

By the way, has anyone been to Fry's lately? Shelves are starting to look a little bare, especially in the TVs department.

I've noticed this as well. I was talking to a friend of mine who works at a metro ATL Fry's; aside from moving most store employees from hourly/salary to commission [which isn't all that unusual], they're also moving more and more towards an inventory model where there's less variety of a given type of item. They're basically trying to compete with Best Buy in buildings the size of WalMarts.