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Thursday, January 26, 2006
Know of a grungy strip mall? Submit it for our list of shame
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s either off-white or light gray. Hard to tell. The color of the paint is cloaked behind a film of dirt and grit.
This particular strip mall houses a barber shop, beauty supply store and European grocery. It has two dollar stores as well as two bridal shops. If there’s an anchor, it’s the Goodwill donation center, which, according to a sign in the window, receives 4,000 donations a month.
A few storefronts are closed. Lease signs adorn the windows. The parking lot’s expansive, big enough to hold an emissions testing trailer and a shuttered bank with a boarded up ATM machine. On weekends, the parking lot turns into a car lot. Private car owners park their for-sale vehicles there.
This is Lilburn Square. It’s in the 5000 block of Lawrenceville Highway. I pass by it several times a week en route to the gym or taking Miles to basketball practice.
On Wednesday, I stopped to browse in a few of the square’s shops and storefronts. I asked the clerk in the beauty supply store about upkeep.
When was the last time the building was pressure- washed? Has the parking lot been repaved in recent years? What about the paint job?
The man minding the store gave me a slight smile, then shook his head. He said tenants clean their own windows and their space, but that was about as far as it got.
In Gwinnett, we’ve mastered the strip mall strut. Mini-malls are omnipresent. Sometimes they’re built to a bare-bones minimum.
Sometimes they go upscale. Think Forum. Despite marketing that touts standalone buildings and storefront parking, it’s still a strip mall at the end of the day.
And there’s nothing wrong with that.
But sometimes developers, owners, investors or whoever let these concrete centers go to the dogs.
You know what I’m talking about. The ones that need a good hosing and paint job. The ones where marquees and other signs lack a few letters and lights.
Ones like Lilburn Square.
Of course others exist. Which brings me to my request.
Let’s see if we can compile a list of the dingiest and dirtiest strip malls in the county. They can be anywhere. It doesn’t matter if they are vacant or occupied. Square footage is irrelevant, too. If they are unkempt, give me a holler.
You can e-mail me or post your offering in the Badie blog. Include the name of the strip mall along with an address that at least provides the name of the nearest major road.
I, with the help of the AJC Gwinnett News staff, will give them a look. We might shoot some photos. If we have enough, we might compile a list, say, of the 10 worst-looking malls.
More important, we’ll try to track down the owners and ask them why in blazing saddles have they let their property go south. Then we’ll ask what they plan to do about it.
Sound like a plan?
