Gwinett going downhill or just certain areas? (Rome, Lawrenceville: 2014, schools)

[Onthemove2014]

Noticed a lot of stores closing in shopping centers around Gwinnett Place and Sattelite BLVD. Any idea why?

Is it just these areas? Is Intown living already starting to kill the suburbs?

[lorilove]

Yes, Gwinnett Place mall is in serious decline. I will have to look for the articles but the owners basically through in the towel a couple of months ago. There was quite a lot of press at the time.

Not sure what the current plans are for the area.

Here is the most recent article

http://www.ajc.com/news/business/mal...hlake-t/nR9GK/

[cittic10]

Originally Posted by Onthemove2014

Is Intown living already starting to kill the suburbs?

It ain't in-town living that's doing it... people have just moved out the next, newer and better and farther out suburbs. That's how sprawl works, dontcha know.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by Onthemove2014

Noticed a lot of stores closing in shopping centers around Gwinnett Place and Sattelite BLVD. Any idea why?

Is it just these areas? Is Intown living already starting to kill the suburbs?

It is just certain areas.


So many areas are still very nice:

Parkview/Mountain Park/South Lilburn
Brookwood/North Snellville
Peachtree Corners
Historic Norcross
North Duluth
Suwanee
Historic Lawrenceville
Grayson
About all of North Gwinnett
About all of East Gwinnett

[Onthemove2014]

We noticed a Old Navy just went out of business in a shopping center near Joanns up there. Then the person I was with said there used to be a lot of stuff around that closed.

Where are people shopping in this area? The Forum is supposedly 10-15 minutes away.

[ATLTJL]

Discover Mills contributed to the decline (a brand new Old Navy just opened there), but Mall of Georgia is what really did it.

[cittic10]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Discover Mills contributed to the decline (a brand new Old Navy just opened there), but Mall of Georgia is what really did it.

Oh come on.
Like malls are what did it.

We all know why so many wealthier white people moved out of that area and malls had nothing to do with it.

[Onthemove2014]

Originally Posted by cittic10

Oh come on.
Like malls are what did it.

We all know why so many wealthier white people moved out of that area and malls had nothing to do with it.

If you are saying what I think you are saying then "white flighters" are pretty scaredy.

I mean, geeze, there may some Mexicans and Koreans but its not like area is the hood or even what I'd consider "dangerous" and the schools seem to be fine.

[ATLTJL]

I know it's hard to believe, but the malls helped drive development in the suburbs.

Before Mall of Georgia was built, that are was totally barren. That's exactly why they choose the site, it was empty and cheap and they could develop it exactly how they wanted to. Which begs the question of why it is designed so poorly being centered around a single road that gets horrible traffic, but that's another discussion.

Anyway, when Mall of Georgia was built, that area all of a sudden became viable and you started to see massive development there. Couple that with the fact that is was also owned by Simon, the company that owned Gwinnett Place. Simon did everything it could to lure stores away from Gwinnett Place to Mall of Georgia where it could demand higher rents per square foot. In a way, Simon cannibalized itself. Well, not in a way, that's exactly what it did.

Would the population have shifted that far north if Mall of Georgia was never buit? That's difficult to say, maybe so, maybe not. But it was built, and that's when a lot of the population shifted. A northward shift of the population of Gwinnett county had already been underway, but it's hard to say where it would have stopped had the mall not been built. Really, who knows? Mall of Georgia could look like Gwinnett Place in 15 or 20 years. If you remember what Gwinnett Place looked like in 1992, it would have been pretty impossible to imagine back then it would ever look like it does now.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by cittic10

It ain't in-town living that's doing it... people have just moved out the next, newer and better and farther out suburbs. That's how sprawl works, dontcha know.

I think that's right. Developers are also looking to get the jump on what's going to be the next wave out.

I bet you there are shopping center developers who will see those population predictions and say, "Hm, 3.7 million new people in the next 30 years? We need to start lining up sites for malls in Toccoa, Thomaston and Rome right now!"

New malls like Avalon have to worry about being leapfrogged before they are even built.