The Gwinnett Place Mall is now the focus of a new study, as one group is trying to figure out exactly what to do with it.
The mall opened in 1984 and was once a thriving and lively place, but as traditional malls have fallen out of trend, so has Gwinnett Place. It has become a near vacant and unseemly structure in an otherwise active community.
The mall was recently purchased by the Gwinnett County commissioners and the new study will determine how the mall should be redeveloped. It was just earlier this month that Gwinnett’s Urban Redevelopment Agency closed on the purchase of the mall.
According to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, the Atlanta Regional Commission is funding a $220,000 study of the area. The study, known as the Livable Centers Initiative, will be used to solicit community input about the mall’s future, as well as look at how transit could be integrated into the plan.
There are a few businesses still operating at the mall, including Macy’s. There’s also a car dealership that has rented some space and Paramount Pictures has an agreement to film at the mall beginning in the next 30 days.
So far there has been no guesses as to what the outcome of the study will look like and no ideas on how the property will be redeveloped. Instead, they are hoping to give the public an opportunity to get creative on what they see. The commission funding the study only says now that they hope to “reimagine Gwinnett Place to make the area more economically competitive and attractive”
The study will begin this summer and is expected to finish in the fall of 2022.
