City Officials Reveal Proposed Plans For Aging Gwinnett Place Mall

GWINNETT COUNTY, GA — Residents of Gwinnett County have a list of wants they hope to see when it comes to revitalizing Gwinnett Place Mall.

Gwinnett County commissioners asked a consultant group to gather feedback from the community as they create the redevelopment plan with equity in mind for the Reclaim Gwinnett Place Mall project. On the list are: affordable housing, neighborhood services, incentives for existing businesses in the area, job support, and a central location with regional and accessible transit.

“It’s not often that we have the chance to revive a site that holds fond memories for so many,” said Gwinnett County Chairwoman Nicole Hendrickson in a statement. “The County pursued this work with the goal of centering marginalized communities most at risk of displacement through large-scale redevelopments such as this one.”

In addition to the Community Partner Advisory Board guiding the process, several community-driven events were held last year to gather feedback.

Last September, an Open House served as an interactive hub for questions centered around equity. From there, the advisory board hosted several small-group conversations coined Meetings-in-a-Box, followed up by one-on-one interviews and a questionnaire. Finally, the advisory board hosted the Reclaim Gwinnett Place Mall Block Party to facilitate and finalize the redevelopment discussion.

“We are doing something we’ve never done before in this region,” said District 1 Commissioner Kirkland Carden in a statement. “The plan is a thoughtful market-driven approach that reinvests in the economic engine for our county.”

The redevelopment draft obtained by WSB-TV offers 16 strategies including affordable housing, and neighborhood services on site, along with loan programs for smaller businesses and jobs for locals.

Gwinnett County purchased the mostly shuttered property for $23 million, reported WSB. The draft plan for the area includes a cultural center, a central park, 3,800 units of mixed-rate housing, 100,000 square feet of retail and 50,000 square feet of office space.

According to WXIA-TV, the iconic mall was a staple in the 80s and 90s and was even featured in the Netflix series “Stranger Things.” The mall has long been in decline, however, with only a few stores left.

The county commission outlined five themes that emerged from the community’s responses:

• Housing: Ensure existing residents of the mall can remain in the area and share in the benefits of redevelopment.
• Neighborhood Services: Support existing and new Gwinnett residents as the County grows and becomes increasingly diverse.
• Small Business: Offer existing businesses in the mall area new opportunities to grow and thrive.
• Jobs: Generate jobs for Gwinnett residents that enable them to support themselves and their families.
• Cultural Activity Center: Become a vibrant, regional destination, with transit connectivity, that generates prosperity for communities and the county.

Next, the Board of Commissioners will evaluate themes from the Reclaim Gwinnett Place Mall Project and outcomes from the Gwinnett Place Livable Centers Initiative study, and use the findings from both plans to prepare a Request for Information to solicit proposals for the redevelopment of Gwinnett Place Mall.