Gwinnett Place Mall; Duluth, Georgia

gwinnett-place-mall-23Located 23 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta, in sprawling Gwinnett County, Gwinnett Place Mall opened to fanfare in 1984. Its anchors – at the time of opening – were Rich’s, Davison’s and Sears. Because of its location – centralized within some of metro Atlanta’s fastest growing areas in the 1980s and also adjacent to I-85 – and its size – a two level mall with nearly a million square feet of selling space – Gwinnett Place Mall instantly became popular with shoppers throughout the entire Atlanta area, even drawing regular shoppers from as far away as South Carolina.

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Located 23 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta, in sprawling Gwinnett County, Gwinnett Place Mall opened to fanfare in 1984.  Its anchors – at the time of opening – were Rich’s, Davison’s and Sears.  Because of its location – centralized within some of metro Atlanta’s fastest growing areas in the 1980s and also adjacent to I-85 – and its size –  a two level mall with nearly a million square feet of selling space – Gwinnett Place Mall instantly became popular with shoppers throughout the entire Atlanta area, even drawing regular shoppers from as far away as South Carolina.

In 1986, Mervyn’s hopped on board, building an anchor store on the southeast side of the mall, and Davison’s became Macy’s through acquisition.  Gwinnett Place Mall enjoyed continued success as the top-tier retail destination for the northeast suburbs of Atlanta into and through the 1990s, even as anchors continued to shift and expand.  In 1993 Parisian joined the mall, and in 1997 Mervyn’s closed their Gwinnett Place store as they exited Atlanta.  Then, in 1998, JCPenney replaced the former Mervyn’s store, keeping the anchor roster complete.

gwinnett-place-mall-231999 and 2001 saw a definitive end to an era of retail dominance as two very large competing projects opened in Gwinnett – the behemoth Mall of Georgia opened approximately 10 minutes northeast of Gwinnett Place Mall along I-85 near Buford in 1999, and in 2001 the Mills Corporation opened gigantic Discover Mills just two miles from Gwinnett Place.  Surprisingly, though, the opening of these huge centers nearby has not had as detrimental an effect as it has with aging malls in similar situations – Gwinnett Place Mall took the punches and has emerged as a successful mid-tier center and remains successful today.

Despite the mall’s success in the face of increased competition, one of Gwinnett Place’s five anchors went dark in 2003 as Macy’s acquired Rich’s and consolidated its operations into the Rich’s store, becoming Rich’s/Macy’s- eliminating the Macy’s/former Davison’s location near the middle of the mall.  However, this anchor will fill in late 2009, as M International Market Place will become the first full-scale Asian department store to enter an anchor space a U.S. mall.

In 2007, Sears decided to use Gwinnett Place shoppers as guinea pigs for their new prototype/experiment store – an ‘upscale’ store with a ‘showroom-type’ atmosphere.  We reported on this back in 2007 when it opened, so it was really neat to see.  Upon our visit to the store in late 2008, we discovered a store with more modern and trendier amenities than a typical Sears mall location – modern lighting, an open floorplan, centrally located computers for accessing Sears.com, classier fonts displayed on blue awnings, snacks for sale at checkout, and more expensive display materials.  As far as we know, no additional Sears like this have opened in any other malls, making this store – and Gwinnett Place mall which houses it – unique, though some of the decor and branding are employed by Sears Grand locations.

gwinnett-place-mall-20Some of Gwinnett Place’s other distinct features include a glass-facaded Macy’s (former Rich’s) on the north end of the mall, and the mall’s layout – shaped by expansions, the mall is a traditional two-level ‘I’ shape complemented with two, shorter two-level wings also ending in anchors.  Gwinnett’s gross-leaseable area today is over 1.2 million square feet, including its five anchor stores.

Surprisingly, the mall has held its own against competition from much newer nearby centers and a shift in demographics as the money follows the sprawl.  In order to remain viable, Gwinnett will need to pull extensively from its immediate area in order to keep dollars from flowing to Buford or the other Atlanta super-malls.  They’ll need to recognize they won’t necessarily be the top-tier mall they were for the first 15 years, but by recognizing the demographic trends – such as opening the Asian department store – they’ll be able to hold their own.

The photos featured here were taken in December 2008.  As usual, feel free to leave your own comments or experiences with Gwinnett Place.

Perimeter Mall; Dunwoody, Georgia

Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody, GA

Our first Georgia entry, Perimeter Mall, is located in the wealthy north-suburban Atlanta community of Dunwoody.  Opened in 1971, Perimeter Mall debuted as the fourth mall in Dekalb County, and the seventh mall in the Atlanta metropolitan area.  Nearly four decades later, Perimeter Mall is one of metro Atlanta’s best shopping venues and offers the most upscale store roster of any mall outside Buckhead.  Located just a few miles north of Buckhead and Midtown Atlanta, Perimeter Mall draws from a large area of the northern metro, from Roswell to Sandy Springs and into northern Dekalb County, and is the anchor to an area of office complexes, retail, and hotels located around the interchange of GA 400 and I-285.    

Ostensibly named after the 64 mile long Interstate 285 which circumscribes Atlanta’s perimeter, and at one time was the edge of Atlanta’s suburban extent, Perimeter Mall opened with only two anchors, Rich’s and JCPenney, in a dumbbell style layout with an enclosed corridor of shops connecting them.  Throughout the 1970s, Perimeter Mall was very similar in design to another Atlanta mall, Greenbriar Mall, which is located in southwest Atlanta some 25 miles away; however, changing fortunes for both areas in the decades following caused the malls to become less similar as time went on.

Perimeter Mall Macys in Dunwoody, GAIn 1982, the two-level Perimeter Mall was dramatically expanded to its current T-shape when a new northwest wing was added, ending at Atlanta-based anchor store Davison’s, which became Macy’s in 1986.  A new food court was also added along this wing, and the wing nearly doubled the size of the mall at the time.

Unfortunately, a terrible tragedy occurred at Perimeter Mall in 1990, as Calvin Brady, a mental hospital patient, opened fire in the mall’s food court at lunch time, killing one person and injuring four. 

To keep up with newer competition like the large and successful North Point Mall which opened in 1993, Perimeter Mall was renovated several times from 1993-2000, and expanded once again in 1998.  Throughout this period numerous anchor changes also occurred, shifting every anchor from its original place and introducing three new ones.  A MARTA rail station also opened just in time for the Olympics in 1996 in the southwest parking lot, providing rail access from downtown Atlanta, Buckhead, and all other MARTA stations. 

In 1998, Nordstrom opened their first Georgia store next to Macy’s in the northwest wing, adding a short stub wing and several more stores in the process.  In addition, JCPenney closed in 2000 and its building was demolished and reconstructed for Dillards, which opened in 2005.  Also, the Rich’s became Rich’s-Macy’s in 2003, and was converted to just Macy’s by 2005; meanwhile, the original Macy’s in the newer wing, which was originally Davison’s prior to 1986, closed in 2003 and reopened the same year as a Bloomingdales.  Got all that?  The opening of Bloomingdales was part of its entry into the Atlanta market, as Macys decided to introduce the Bloomingdales nameplate to two Atlanta malls rather than sell the anchors due to the Rich’s consolidation.  Both Perimeter Mall and Buckhead’s Lenox Square, where Bloomingdales also opened in 2003, were considered because of their demographics as both malls serve some of the wealthiest zip codes in the Atlanta area.

One of the more recent renovations also brought a streetscape facade to the Ashford-Dunwoody Road-facing exterior, bringing new destination restaurants and outward-facing retail, a popular trend in malls these days, to Perimeter Mall. 

Perimeter Mall Bloomingdales in Dunwoody, GAToday, Perimeter Mall has a solid foothold in the wealthy northern Atlanta market, surviving despite an onslaught of malls and lifestyle centers which have opened since 1990 throughout the metro area, like the nearby North Point Mall in Alpharetta which opened in 1993.  Also, Perimeter Mall is only several miles north of metro Atlanta’s best malls, Phipps Plaza and Lenox Square, which are co-located in Buckhead across the street from one another.  Perimeter Mall’s upscale and innovative roster of stores continues to woo Atlanta consumers, as recently the Yoforia chain, serving the latest big trend of frozen yogurt (a la Pinkberry and Red Mango) chose Perimeter as its first mall location.  Perimeter Mall is the anchor of large retail complexes, office buildings and hotels near the interchange of GA 400 and I-285, and will continue to thrive in the near future unless GGP’s financial woes force its closure.

We visited Perimeter Mall in December 2008 and took the pictures featured here.  Feel free to leave your own comments about the mall or experiences you’ve had.   

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New Classic Sears Concept: Really Freakin’ Cool

Sears new

Where’s that vintage Sears photo from, you ask? Actually, it’s brand new! According to the Gwinnett (GA) Business Journal, Sears has just unveiled yet another new prototype store at the Gwinnett Place Mall. Titled the “Duluth” model for the city in which it’s located, it’s designed to appeal directly to female and teen shoppers with a more fashion-conscious image that plays up the “softer side of Sears” (remember that jingle?). According to the article:

Gone are the interior walls stacked from ground to ceiling with merchandise. You can see across the entire floor, like a show room, on each level. You’ll also notice a number of other changes … a “customer solution center” that’s equal parts concierge desk and Internet cafe. “Lifestyle vignettes” that look like cutouts of a home and show how various Sears’ offerings could look in your house. Expanded display areas of major brands such as Lands’ End clothing. And 13,000 feet of additional shopping space.

The article also mentions that it’s going well so far, and the redesign may join the myriad other Sears concepts (Department Store, Essentials, Grand, Hardware, Appliances, umm… Big Kmart) in being rolled out to select locations nationwide. And while Sears as a fashion-oriented retailer may be something of a tough sell (Personally, I think they should work on competing head-to-head with Target and sniping at the upper end of Wal-Mart’s customer base), the use of the classic Sears logo on the store is pretty awesome. It really brings back memories of the days when people got all gussied up to go shopping downtown, and when salespeople still wore white gloves.