Southlake Mall: Morrow, Georgia's Center for Retail Shopping

Southlake Mall is located on Interstate 75, the major highway heading south from Atlanta, at its intersection with Georgia Highway 54. The mall is about 20 miles south of downtown Atlanta in suburban Clayton County, the metro area's fifth largest county. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is 10 miles away. The mall's primary trade area includes over 825,000 people, and it is growing at a rate of around three percent a year, a relatively slow growth rate for the Atlanta area.

Southlake contains over one million square feet of shopping and is anchored by JCPenney, Sears and Macy's. It was built in 1976 and renovated in 1999. While some parts of Atlanta's southern suburbs have prospered, the Morrow area has not. Southlake Mall has not been able to remain current with shopping trends as its sales have fallen over the years. Besides the anchors, only a few nationally known stores remain. Those include Aeropostale, Foot Locker, American Eagle Outfitters, Lane Bryant and Victoria's Secret. Most of the retailers in the mall are local.

Southlake was once one of two regional malls for a wide swath of counties south of Atlanta, but its preeminence has been replaced by newer "power centers,'' open-air shopping centers where customers drive directly to the stores of their choice. C. Whitney Knoll, a manager of an Atlanta commercial real estate firm, notes, "All the new power centers in [nearby] Henry County have sucked the energy out of Southlake.'' The mall's owner, General Growth Properties, declared bankruptcy in early 2009, and Knoll says that this could, ironically, work in Southlake Mall's favor. The Atlanta Business Chronicle quotes Knoll as saying that another owner could "do something with it that General Growth can't do right now.''

In a stroke of fortune for Southlake, AMC Theatres, the company that operates the mall's cinema, is opening IMAX screens at a limited number of locations across the country. Southlake was chosen as one of only two theatres in the Atlanta metro area to receive the technology. (Other locations are expected to open later.) This screen is the only IMAX theatre on the south side of Atlanta. J.B. Burke, a local resident, expressed his astonishment, saying, "This is wonderful news. I can't believe it's on this side of town.'' Burke and others hope that the IMAX will prove to be an economic boon for the area.

As one can imagine, customers' reviews of Southlake Mall are not spectacular. Most shoppers are unhappy with the selection of stores in the mall, and some worry about crime and cleanliness. "Most of the stores in the mall do not meet my needs,'' says one customer. "Don't feel safe in the parking lots,'' notes another. Younger shoppers, on the other hand, are happier with the mall's offerings. A "Dedicated Young Customer'' responding to a blog entry says, "[T]hey have all the nice new clothing.'' One of the most glowing remarks on one website said, "Southlake Mall is not that bad.'' The mall's survival may depend on many more "dedicated young customers'' finding the mall "not that bad.''