Rank the malls of Atlanta (Alpharetta, Lawrenceville: foreclosure, loan, theatre)

[cwkimbro]

I was afraid something like that would happen, if it got cheap enough.

I don't really want the county to be left with the cost of something aging that hasn't been taken care of.

Still they will probably have better luck up keeping the area from what Moonbeam was doing. This also leaves more room of keeping some land as public right of way and selling off divisions or plots of land later to be redeveloped as a town center of types. The ring roads around malls are not conducive to evolving an area to developing a town center and adjacent neighborhood.

I do fear the costs will tick up over time.

[sedimenjerry]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

I was afraid something like that would happen, if it got cheap enough.

I don't really want the county to be left with the cost of something aging that hasn't been taken care of.

Still they will probably have better luck up keeping the area from what Moonbeam was doing. This also leaves more room of keeping some land as public right of way and selling off divisions or plots of land later to be redeveloped as a town center of types. The ring roads around malls are not conducive to evolving an area to developing a town center and adjacent neighborhood.

I do fear the costs will tick up over time.

Yea I just don't know if a "town center" model would work. Pretty much all the towns in Gwinnett have already revamped their areas so they're late to the party. Who would go to the new "downtown Gwinnett Place" when you have a new downtown Duluth. It's not close enough to an existing city to pull what Suwanee did and basically create a new downtown (think the footprint is also much larger). It's in the middle of a commercial mess so it's not really something people would want to drive to. All the other downtowns are at least surrounded by housing close by (like, really close by). GPM has some apartments and houses to the north, but all those people may as well drive to downtown Duluth. You have the area to the south of 85 which I guess could fight through the lights on Pleasant Hill. I would think the best option is to subdivide for more commercial development. What else can you do? The area is really busy and has a ton of diversity. It's a Korean hotspot it seems. Question is if the supply is already maxed out or if there's more demand that can be met.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by sedimenjerry

Yea I just don't know if a "town center" model would work. Pretty much all the towns in Gwinnett have already revamped their areas so they're late to the party. Who would go to the new "downtown Gwinnett Place" when you have a new downtown Duluth. It's not close enough to an existing city to pull what Suwanee did and basically create a new downtown (think the footprint is also much larger). It's in the middle of a commercial mess so it's not really something people would want to drive to. All the other downtowns are at least surrounded by housing close by (like, really close by). GPM has some apartments and houses to the north, but all those people may as well drive to downtown Duluth. You have the area to the south of 85 which I guess could fight through the lights on Pleasant Hill. I would think the best option is to subdivide for more commercial development. What else can you do? The area is really busy and has a ton of diversity. It's a Korean hotspot it seems. Question is if the supply is already maxed out or if there's more demand that can be met.

I was thinking of something bigger than Duluth.

Downtown Duluth is pretty small and the amount of housing is low and Downtown Duluth isn't something that is going to attract a new office building. It is more of a neighborhood oriented town center. They've still managed to build one apartment complex and a neighborhood of townhomes, but there is limited room to grow too.

I'm thinking of something more along the lines that could be more of a modern-built Lawrenceville, Decautur, or Marrietta over time and a place where newer modern apartments could develop, alongside other land-use types, like office buildings along with some retail.

The problem with Gwinnett is there is soo much square footage of high-end retail per capita or per capita retail sales receipts within the county, so we need to change the land use type.

But the problem is you have to make it a place that these other land use types would want to be too.

Now the county can't develop something like that, but they can agree to save the public right of way for the framework of streets to sell sub-divided plots for other uses and grow more organically.

The thing about Gwinnett Place is it has the transportation connections to attract larger-scale uses, but it has none of the charm of being a downtown of any type to be a magnet for those uses vs. anywhere int he I-85 corridor also near GA316. In other words, its a place that could be live-work-play, but also attract the next would-be Primerica offices (of another company).

[sedimenjerry]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

I was thinking of something bigger than Duluth.

Downtown Duluth is pretty small and the amount of housing is low and Downtown Duluth isn't something that is going to attract a new office building. It is more of a neighborhood oriented town center. They've still managed to build one apartment complex and a neighborhood of townhomes, but there is limited room to grow too.

I'm thinking of something more along the lines that could be more of a modern-built Lawrenceville, Decautur, or Marrietta over time and a place where newer modern apartments could develop, alongside other land-use types, like office buildings along with some retail.

The problem with Gwinnett is there is soo much square footage of high-end retail per capita or per capita retail sales receipts within the county, so we need to change the land use type.

But the problem is you have to make it a place that these other land use types would want to be too.

Now the county can't develop something like that, but they can agree to save the public right of way for the framework of streets to sell sub-divided plots for other uses and grow more organically.

The thing about Gwinnett Place is it has the transportation connections to attract larger-scale uses, but it has none of the charm of being a downtown of any type to be a magnet for those uses vs. anywhere int he I-85 corridor also near GA316. In other words, its a place that could be live-work-play, but also attract the next would-be Primerica offices (of another company).

Yea I could see something like a mixed use development if that's kind of what you're thinking. But that would be quite the undertaking if doing the entire plot. "Divide and conquer" is the only thing I think of that might work there.

[aries4118]

IKEA
Wegman's
A cinema focused on East Asian (Korean) and South Asian (Indian) films.

[DJDeadParrot]

Originally Posted by sedimenjerry

Question is if the supply is already maxed out or if there's more demand that can be met.

My observation is that supply is absolutely maxed out, going by how much of the retail space is consistently empty in that area. Some of the strip centers certainly [i]appear]/i] to be busy [the one the Bed Bath Beyond and Mashalls is in, for instance]. But, there's also a large glut of empty, and decaying, retail space, not just in the mall, but in many of the retail properties around the mall.

[Joe_P]

Cumberland is #1 for me.

It's closest, has the general crop of mall stores and relatively easy to deal with traffic wise.

[arjay57]

I'd still put Lenox and Phipps on the list, even with all the shooting that's going on down there.

If you come prepared and keep your head on a swivel you ought to be able to handle these amateurs.

[demonta4]

I'm gonna go off the cuff here and give a shoutout to Southlake Mall. Many in Atlanta, including on this forum, was counting the mall's days 10 years ago, yet it's still going strong today. It's not upscale, but it's scaled to the communities surrounding it and you can find affordable decent fashion options such as H&M. Gwinnett Place died. Greenbriar, West End, and South Dekalb are all shells of their former selves. Southlake is still a clean decent mall with great stores and is still relatively busy for being in Clayton County.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by demonta4

I'm gonna go off the cuff here and give a shoutout to Southlake Mall. Many in Atlanta, including on this forum, was counting the mall's days 10 years ago, yet it's still going strong today. It's not upscale, but it's scaled to the communities surrounding it and you can find affordable decent fashion options such as H&M. Gwinnett Place died. Greenbriar, West End, and South Dekalb are all shells of their former selves. Southlake is still a clean decent mall with great stores and is still relatively busy for being in Clayton County.

Here is a link to an NBC News story from October 2020 that did a profile on a company (Chime Solutions) that has helped to keep Southlake Mall open and functioning by setting up a call center in the anchor store space previously occupied by J.C. Penney...

Based in metro Atlanta, he started his mission by using the former J.C. Penney space at Southlake Mall, just outside the city, to open a 115,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art call center.

Chime employs 1,500 people there, an overwhelming number of them Black and most from Clayton County, where the company had been expected to generate about $87 million in sales per year in 2016. The site also creates another 300 indirect jobs and benefits neighboring businesses, too, according to a University of Georgia economist who analyzed Chime’s economic impact for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“Southlake Mall was going to fail,” Omar Hawk, Chime’s vice president of operations in Georgia, said. “Now, the mall is thriving. Chime’s presence has revitalized that area.”

That same company has also opened up call centers in struggling malls in Dallas and Charlotte.

A company turns millions in profits bringing call-center jobs to Black communities (NBC News)