Gwinnett Place Mall is a 1,278,000-square-foot, super-regional mall in Gwinnett County, a suburban county northeast of Atlanta. The mall is located on Interstate 85, the major northeast corridor out of the city. Gwinnett Place was built in 1984, the same year that Gwinnett County was first named the fastest growing county in the nation. With a population over 700,000, Gwinnett County is still a national leader in growth, as well as economic strength. The mall remained the largest in the county for many years, until two other super-regional malls opened nearby in 1999 and 2001.
With competition from other malls, Gwinnett Place suffered economically, most notably with the loss of Rich's, their lead anchor, in 2003. The other anchors - Macy's, Sears, Belk's, and JCPenney - remain open. Although the prospects for Gwinnett Place seemed dim for several years, since 2007, the mall has had a flurry of good news:
In 2007, Sears opened the prototype of their new retail concept at Gwinnett Place. The new Sears is designed to create a warmer, more "upscale'' environment.
In response to an increasingly diverse population, the mall has leased space to new stores including the Churro Factory, It Is Soccer and African Hair Braiding.
The crime rate in the mall area has decreased steadily in the past year-and-a-half due to increased police presence and retailer vigilance.
In the Fall of 2009, Gwinnett Place will welcome M International Market Place, a Korean shopping concept that is opening its first store in the U.S. at Gwinnett Place.
M International Market Place promises to be nothing like anything the Atlanta area has seen before. The three-level store will have high-end groceries, luxury retail goods, and fine dining, all with an international flavor. The addition of this tenant may return Gwinnett Place to its former level of success as a super-regional mall.
Indeed, Gwinnett Place Mall offers a retail experience unlike many other malls in the metro Atlanta area. It is home to such mainstream stores as Abercrombie & Fitch, Aeropostale, and FOSSIL, but, in response the changing demographics of its clientele, the mall has added new offerings. The Churro Factory, African Hair Braiding, El Caballo Ballo Western Wear and Bad Boyz Barbershop, while not traditional mall stores, fit very comfortably into the mix of retailers here.
Another addition to Gwinnett Place is the International Education Center, a unit of Gwinnett Technical College, one of the fastest growing technical colleges in the nation. The center will be operational in the Fall of 2009 and will feature continuing education classes, workforce training courses and language assistance geared toward the area's multilingual population.
A major complaint about the Gwinnett Place Mall area for years has been traffic. The interchange onto I-85 creates a bottleneck, and there is no public transportation to the mall except for a bus line. The Gwinnett Place Community Improvement District, a neighborhood improvement board, is working with the Georgia Department of Transportation to redesign the interchange in order to help traffic flow more freely. There is also talk of light rail coming to the mall in the future. These improvements will continue to enhance the resurgence of Gwinnett Place as an area destination.
