Fall of Gwinnett Place Mall

The Beginning

Gwinnett Place Mall was opened in 1984 in Gwinnett County of Georgia. It was one of the leading shopping malls in the region with the original anchor line up including Rich's, Davison's, Sears and Mervyn's that joined the mall later on. Parisian later joined the mall in 1995 in a wing between Rich's and Mervyn's.

Anchor changes came along when Davison's was purchased by Macy's shortly after opening. It was then re-branded as a Macy's store by 1986. Mervyn's left the mall and JCPenney filled the void in 1997. Further Anchor changes continued when Macy's and Rich's merged together in 2005 and Rich's name was retired. Parisian was purchased by Belk from Saks in 2006 and all locations were converted to the Belk nameplate by 2007. The former Davison's building was vacated up until Mega Mart opened in 2010.

Fall of the Mall

Mall of Georgia under construction in 1999.

The stiff competition arose when Mall of Georgia and Sugarloaf Mills (formerly Discover Mills) both opened up in the area in 1999 and 2001. Mall of Georgia is approximately 13 miles away from Gwinnett Place Mall while Sugarloaf Mills is about 3.4 miles away.

In 2012, Simon Property Group who also owns both Mall of Georgia and Sugarloaf Mills transferred a 115 million dollar loan to a special server ending interest in the mall. This caused major concern for the community and the county. Simon Property Group was then blamed for the mall's continued decline as it didn't match up to the success of Sugarloaf Mills (Discover Mills at the time) and Mall of Georgia. The mall was put up for sale and then purchased by Moonbeam Capital Investments in 2013.

Decline

Belk was the first to close its store at the mall in August of 2013, due to the poor financial performance of the store. The hallway leading to Belk was partially closed off from the public later that year. JCPenney then closed in 2015 as part of a 40 store closure due to a 3rd quarter company loss. Mega Mart which operated 3 levels out of the former Davison's reduced its space to 1 level. Beauty Master (a beauty department store) opened in the former JCPenny in 2016. Sears was the latest anchor store to close its store fall of 2018. Sears property was then purchased by Northwood Raven in hopes to demolish the Sears building and erect apartments.

Moonbeam Capital Investments has done little to nothing to keep the mall leased and well maintained. Major retailers have pulled out of mall such as The entire Food Court, Claire's, American Eagle, Auntie Annie's, Hot Topic, Forever 21 & Best Buy Mobile (just to name a few). Some escalators in the mall are also shut off prompting shoppers to walk up and down them as if they are traditional stairs.

Moonbeam Capital was publicly blamed for the continuous decline of the mall in 2017 for not going through with its initial plans. Those plans include a redevelopment of the property by adding apartments to the site as well as converting some of the existing empty wings into office space. Moonbeam later responded stating that the continued decline was due to the shift from brick and mortar stores to online.

In late December of 2017, a decomposing body was found in the vacant Subway of the food court. It was reported that the body was there for two weeks. I personally recorded a live video of me walking through the food court of the mall a week prior to the body being discovered. At the time, I did not know there was a decomposing body not too far from where I was standing.

Today

The Mall in recent years has appeared in films and TV shows such as: 

• I, Tonya 
• Nappily Ever After 
• Stranger Things Season 3 
• Upcoming Netflix film titled "Holidate." 

Most of the vacant storefronts are dressed up to appear as if the mall is busy thriving. As of June 2019, the set of Stranger Things remains in the Food Court that is heavily guarded by mall security.

Former Yankee Candle.  

Recent store closures include Champs, Aeropostale, Payless Shoe Source, Know Style & Dollar Time. The mall carries few national retailers such as Express, Victoria Secret, Finish Line, Foot Locker, Foot Action, DTLR, Bath & Body Works and Macy's as the last full line Department Store. It has been announced that a developer has recently closed a deal to purchase Gwinnett Place Mall and turn it into a Cricket Stadium Complex. This will include the demolition of the entire mile in which Macy's nor Northwood has commented on it.

Belk (2013 - 2019)

Belk 2013. 

Belk Exterior 2013.

Closed Store Fronts

Aeropostale and Hot Topic prior to closure.  

Closed Gymboree 

Former Ann Taylor. 

Exterior Shots