Kohl's Department store (Atlanta, Savannah, Macon: lease, homes, neighborhood)

[littlelou]

I heard we're getting a Kohl's department store....YAY!!! but where and when? I get aggravated every time I see one of their ads on TV because its a great place to shop and it's not here!!

Anyone know?

[Newsboy]

Haven't heard this, but it makes sense. Savannah (as usually) is the last market in Georgia to get Kohl's. They are ALL OVER metro Atlanta, North Georgia, Macon, Augusta, etc. Seems like Kohl's was once announced for the planned Savannah Quarters "lifestyle center" at I-16 and Pooler Parkway that was also to include Target, Belk, movie theaters, etc ... but the whole thing was either put on hold or cancelled. But other than the Pooler area, I don't know where else in Chatham County a development agreeable to Kohl's could go. We're running out of land.

Kohl's could quickly and easily go into one of the empty anchors at Savannah Mall, but I don't think they would do that for a variety of reasons -- even though it would be great for the mall.

[WanderingImport]

Pooler is the last frontier for businesses who want to locate in Chatham. Seems like the place for a Kohls.

As for Savannah Mall, I think they just need to bulldoze the place and start over with a lifestyle center. They might have had some type of resurgence, but that mall is still crap compared to Oglethorpe. (Yes, I know that isn't realistic, but that would happen in an ideal situation IMO)

[912]

Originally, Kohl's, Ashley Furniture & Dick's Sporting goods were to be located in a lifestyle center where homes are currently located between Abercorn & White Bluff on Wilshire Dr. The land was rezoned commercial at the request of the residents, who wanted to move due to continual flooding & the deterioration of the neighborhood. Then...2008 happened & it fell apart.

Another note...why does Brunswick seem to get certain stores before Savannah? They have a BW3 and a Dick's under construction. They had Ashley furniture & Staples well before Savannah got them. Odd.....

[DanielAvery]

I never put much stock in "I heard we're getting..." rumors unless it is in the newspaper along with a location/opening date announcement. Too often, people say "Wouldn't it be nice if we had a ____", and it gets repeated as "I heard a ___ will be opening". I can count at least three such rumors about Whole Foods (of all places) over the past three or four years, and more recently, a BrandsMart USA. And each of those were speculated to open in Pooler, too! Five Guys Burgers and Fries was recently in the newspaper, announcing plans to open a location in Twelve Oaks Shopping Center, so THAT's the kind of opening that I can believe will happen.

Kohl's keeps coming up on people's wish lists because they buy national ad time on cable channels and broadcast networks. Many people get confused when they see ads for Kohl's, unable to tell the differences between local ads and national ad buys. (Their brains would probably fry if they watched the WGN/Chicago Superstation, with all their Chicago-oriented ads) I think someone said they have a store or two in Hilton Head/Bluffton, so perhaps that's how a commercial made it onto the local news, but mostly their ads air during prime time or daytime, when the commercials are mostly programmed by the network, not the local station.
Similarly, ads in the newspapers would be because of the SC locations, since the SMN (for better or worse) is the most-read paper in the area and the ads would be purchased by their corporate people.

Frankly I don't see the draw of the place. Every one I've been in struck me as having Goody's-type clothing (that is, poorly put together, lower-quality fabrics), and not "distinctive" in its private labels or anything. If one opened in the area, I would probably not shop there, even though I shop outlet-type places like TJ Maxx and Marshalls regularly. Kohl's just seemed to be promoting themselves as being like a mall specialty store when the merchandise seems (to me) much less reliable/durable.

[gentlearts]

Kohl's is OK for some things, but I can live without it. The one I used to go to had nothing but racks and racks of clearance clothing, but I never could find anything I wanted to wear. In Ohio at least, it was the perfect place to buy a pumpkin/Christmas tree/Easter bunny appliqued sweatshirt, but nothing really fashionable. They did carry Vera Wang, which I thought was a crazy marketing decision, since the customer who buys the aforementioned pumpkin appliqued sweatshirt is not exactly the fashion forward designer customer.

[DanielAvery]

Last month, I wrote:

I never put much stock in "I heard we're getting..." rumors unless it is in the newspaper along with a location/opening date announcement.

Seen in SMN, Kohl's is going to open a store in Oglethorpe Plaza (the space most of us call "the strip mall where Best Buy is"). They will take over the spaces where Office Depot and the vacant Goody's are, and Office Depot will move across the street into the Books a Million space that is soon to be vacated. It will be open (probably) within a year.

I'm actually most upset that BAM is closing. Apparently they had lease issues with Abercorn Common. Maybe they can re-open somewhere else soon.

[Newsboy]

Once again, a major national retailer goes to ridiculous lengths to open a store on Abercorn Street -- SMACK DAB IN THE MOST CONGESTED PART OF THE ENTIRE REGION!! And in what is probably the most difficult location on all of Abercorn for getting in and out of, on a big bend between White Bluff and Montgomery Cross!

Honestly, why must EVERYTHING in this city be clustered around Oglethorpe Mall, along overbuilt and gridlocked surface streets MILES AND MILES FROM THE NEAREST INTERSTATE?! It makes absolutely no sense except for the mass of available customers being in one place ... but that's the problem: MASS!

As an Islands resident who works downtown, I seldom if ever go south of DeRenne and to a mall NEVER! i avoid that area like the plague! And though I will probably never go to Kohl's anyway, what does this placement say about their potential to attract customers from Effingham, Hinesville, Statesboro? I still think Kohl's would have made an excellent anchor tenant (along with Target and perhap's a new Belk) in a lifestyle center at I-16 and Pooler Parkway as planned. Not only would they have drawn from the broader region, I have no doubt city residents would drive out there to shop. But no, everything has to be on "Abercorn Expressway" ... which I got news for ya, ain't no "expressway" !!!!