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Thursday, January 10, 2008
What’s the allure of the road to Loganville?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Susan Gast / AJC
Students attend soccer practice rat Creekside Sports Center, a new indoor soccer complex off U.S. 78 near Loganville.
If the economy is slow, word hasn’t reached U.S. 78 east of Snellville.
A brand new 43,000-square-foot soccer/athletic center, which opened in November, was filled Tuesday night with Adidas-clad kids (and moms) practicing and trying out the artificial turf. A bowling alley has emerged next door. A new Lowe’s home improvement store and a Best Buy are on the way in Loganville. An office supply store may come, too. Office condos are selling in a development called Judah’s Crossing. An International House of Pancakes has opened. A new Kroger complex is in the works. There’s talk of a Cracker Barrel and a Target.
I mentioned this surge of development last week, along with the lament by Snellville’s mayor that it is outside, rather than within, Snellville. There is disagreement about why this is so, so I talked to a few business people to ask them about location, location, location.
The reasons are as varied as the businesses and the individuals behind them. But there are major themes: east of Snellville is where the people are moving, that’s where the land is, that’s where the new market is.
Creekside Sports Center, just off U.S. 78 on Krisam Creek Drive, is the dream of David and Debbie Bird of Loganville, who started the Bluesprings Youth Soccer Association in Loganville 12 years ago, said Steve Keiss, facility manager and part owner. They began work on the idea for an indoor soccer complex six years ago.
David Bird, a former resident of Snellville and graduate of South Gwinnett High School, has lived near Loganville since 1981. He got a chance to buy 38 acres (and later, 10 more) along U.S. 78 near Loganville to put the dream into motion.
Much of the acreage is being used for the soccer complex and for green space, but some is being developed into separate commercial interests, and some has been sold to other developers, Bird said.
Bird liked the location because it is not far from the outdoor site used by the youth association, it has good visibility, is along a major thoroughfare and is where families have moved and are continuing to move.
That movement really gained speed 20 years ago, said Mike Cook, a Loganville Realtor who has handled the sites for the new Lowe’s and Best Buy and was involved in the IHOP and a Walgreen’s development.
“People began leaving Gwinnett and DeKalb and moving to Walton to get away from the hustle and bustle. … Now, commercial is needed.”
The retail surge in the Loganville area began more than seven years ago when Home Depot and Wal-Mart expressed interested in moving in, Cook said. Plans were delayed, however, by the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the economic hesitancy that followed. But soon Home Depot arrived, followed by Wal-Mart. Then came Ruby Tuesday, Chili’s and others, he said.
Most of the businesses coming to the Loganville area reflect a natural progression of growth. The big companies — such as Lowe’s — evaluate the community to make sure the need can support the business before they commit, he said.
But there are some businesses who move from elsewhere. Some, from Snellville.
Pet Superstore is one. Its main reason? Traffic.
“The road is horrible there,” said owner Mary Ellen Wertanen about the store’s former location in a Snellville shopping center near Haverty’s. “To turn left, you had to take your life into your own hands.”
She constantly heard the frustration of customers talking about the traffic near the U.S. 78-Ga. 124 intersection. Parking also was tough at her old location, she said. And the building was aging.
So, on Dec. 31, Wertanen moved Pet Superstore into a free-standing building almost 4 miles east on U.S. 78. She had wanted to stay within 3 miles of her original store, which opened in 1991 and has built up a good client base. But the properties she looked at in Snellville were too expensive, she said.
Also, she found out that about 75 percent of her customers were coming from the Loganville area.
“That accounts for a lot,” Wertanen said.
Wertanen has witnessed the movement of businesses away from U.S. 78 in Snellville and thinks it began when Target vacated its original location at McGee Road and U.S. 78 to move to Ga. 124. Stores in that shopping center were hurt.
Then came Wal-Mart’s move from its Snellville Oaks site to Ga. 124, leaving that shopping center without its anchor.
More recently, the Pike’s nursery closing left its mark, too, she said.
She’s not sure when it will end.
These are just three perspectives — three views expressed by those on the road to Loganville. No doubt there are more.
But there is also agreement: The development toward, in and beyond Loganville is far from slowing.
“I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet,” Keiss said.
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