For folk who live over on the east side of metro-Atlanta.

[RockmartDawg]

You may already be aware of this. I hadn't heard anything until seeing this story. North DeKalb Mall is being demolished to make way for a mixed-use development. Sorta makes me think of what someone did with the old Belmont Hills Shopping Center, in Smyrna.

Demolition day is here for a major metro Atlanta mall

[Concourse E]

that was our go to mall before Northlake was finished. It kind of evolved during the 80s to have shops like Mervyns and if memory serves, Uptons. But its more or less been dead since the mid 90s. Way over due - that's a decent plot of land for a mall to be 'not dead yet' for a generation.

[EastBroadDawg]

The rise and fall of the shopping mall has been interesting to watch. Definitely time for redevelopment. I'm pulling for the Gwinnett Place and Georgia Square redevelopments.

[dncdawg]

Gwinnett place and that whole area is puzzling.  The amount of traffic through that corridor should be really compelling for that piece of land.  The county bought it a year or so ago touting plans to redevelop, but it just can't get off of the ground.  They'll probably squander the opportunity and make it a "mass transit hub" or build a cricket stadium there (both things that have been discussed in recent years...)

[Concourse E]

Gwinnett place and that whole area is puzzling.  The amount of traffic through that corridor should be really compelling for that piece of land.  The county bought it a year or so ago touting plans to redevelop, but it just can't get off of the ground.  They'll probably squander the opportunity and make it a "mass transit hub" or build a cricket stadium there (both things that have been discussed in recent years...)
[/quote]

Yes, that is amazing, I pass there a couple of times a week and the volume of traffic on Pleasant Hill is astonishing.  I think they put too much around the mall itself, so its like a full contact journey just to get there.

[LuvsDawgs]

Ahh, Northlake Mall.
A looooooong time ago, there was a strip center across the street from the mall, and I was transferred up there to be the assistant manager of the theater there.  My job was to run the place until a manager was hired.  I ran that place for months and months…all these manager-prospects came and went with nobody wanting the job!  One day, the district manager came over and said that since I’ve been doing such a great job running the place, they were going to offer the manager job to ME!!
I looked at the division manager and said “For 6 months y’all have paid me an assistant manager salary for doing a manager job, and now you want me to take it?  Boy, y’all must be scraping the bottom of the barrel by now offering it to me.”.  I was too young and stupid to turn it down.  I lasted a couple of more months and then I quit!
Sorry….i just had to get that off my chest!   Like Barney Fife says “That was therapetic!”!

[RockmartDawg]

They tore down the old Belmont Hills Shopping Center, in Smyrna, and they've actually made it quite nice. It is now called:

The Shops at Belmont

Before (very old photo):



After

[JC-DAWG83]

Regency Mall in Augusta opened in 1978, it was the larges mall in Georgia when it opened, 800,000 square feet of retail space. Regency boomed for 20 or so years but the death knell of malls started taking hold in the mid to late 90s. The place became the favorite haunt of the local "urban youth" and, as is always the case when the urban youth show up, crime and violence surged. The death spiral began as decent people stopped going and stores started closing until, in 2002, the mall closed completely. Since then, the place has sat empty except for homeless people who broke in and set fires or slept inside.

[McDonoughDawg]

Malls had a good run.

[RockmartDawg]

I remember reading about whomever owns Town Centre Mall, in Kennesaw, had filed for bankruptcy. This was a couple/few years ago. My wife and I have gone there during Christmas, as they set up a See's candy shop during Christmas, Easter, maybe around other holidays. The mall seemed quite busy to me. We'll see how that goes, though, as they do seem to be having financial difficulty.