Gwinnett Place Mall
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Gwinnett Place Mall is a superregional shopping center located in Duluth, GA in Gwinnett County. For the first 16 years, Gwinnett Place was the leading mall in the region, drawing shoppers from as far away as South Carolina and centering what was then one of the fastest growing counties in the nation.
When it first opened in 1980, its original anchors were Rich's, Davison's and Sears. In 1986, Mervyn's joined the mall and Davison's was changed over to Macy's. Further anchor shuffling occurred in 1993 and 1995 when Parisian joined the mall and Mervyn's left the mall, respectively. JCPenney took over the Mervyn's spot the following year. In these aspects, the mall developed on a very similar fashion as Town Center Mall on the northwest side of Atlanta, and were in many ways sister malls. However, one of the distinct features about Gwinnett Place Mall is the Macy's (former Rich's), which features an exterior almost entirely covered in mirrorglass.
While still successful, the mall was seriously challenged by the opening of Mall of Georgia in 1999. Not only did the mall take a large part of its affluent customer base and all of its out-of-state shopping base, but also the mall has been unable to attract any new anchors to fill the void of the former Davison's/Macy's, which was closed in 2003. This will be particularly challenging considering the mall contains five anchors. While the mall has the population base to support it, much worry is in the future of this mall because of the glut of malls around it and the major demographic shift of the surrounding area. However, the Atlanta area has historically had a very low failure rate of its major malls and the mall continues to prosper, though not at the original levels it once had.
