GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Leaders in Gwinnett County outlined their priorities on Tuesday for the future of Gwinnett Place Mall, after the county purchased it from a developer in 2020 for $23 million.
County commissioners laid out a vision of the mall as a reclaimed community hub, where the focus will be on benefiting "marginalized communities most at risk of displacement through large-scale redevelopments such as this one," as Gwinnett Commission Chairwoman Nicole Hendrickson put it in a statement.
The iconic mall - a staple of 80s and 90s Gwinnett childhoods that was featured in "Stranger Things" - has long been in decline and is largely empty but for a few stores still operating, such as the Macy's.
The county has put forth a reclamation and revitalization campaign that they said would include "affordable housing, neighborhood services, incentives for existing businesses in the area, job support and a central location with regional and accessible transit."
The county commission outlined five themes based on community input for prioritization when they begin to take in development proposals:
- 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.
“We are doing something we’ve never done before in this region,” District 1 Commissioner Kirkland Carden said in a statement. “The plan is a thoughtful market-driven approach that reinvests in the economic engine for our county.”
A release said the county's next step will be to "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."