Nearly five years after the end of the recession, the pitiful state of some of metro Atlanta’s major malls could upend the area’s reputation as a shopping mecca, retail experts say.
For every showcase of trendy stores at Lenox Square or the Mall of Georgia is a North DeKalb Mall or Gwinnett Place Mall, with large swaths of unoccupied stores or nontraditional tenants, such as wig shops and nail salons.
Those stuck in the middle, including Stonecrest Mall in Lithonia, have maintained many of their big anchors, such as Sears and Dillard’s, but have struggled to keep ubiquitous chains, such as Gap and Starbuck’s.
About one-third of Atlanta’s roughly 17 malls are thriving, while another third is struggling, according to the experts, who declined to identify which ones because of differing ways of calculating a mall’s health.
The other third died — including Shannon Mall, which closed its doors in 2010 — or on life-support.
“The malls that are surviving here are the ones in affluent areas,” said Ellen Dunham-Jones, a professor or architecture and urban design at Georgia Tech, who studies dead malls and mall redevelopment.
Two on the ill health list — North DeKalb and Gwinnett Place — could soon cease operations as traditional malls and work more like power centers. The Gwinnett CID has proposed removing the roof of Gwinnett Place and redeveloping the mall as a town center, with walkable streets and a mix of housing of shops. Hendon Properties, owner of North DeKalb, is considering a similar move.
The health of the area’s malls is important because shopping is a huge draw for metro Atlanta’s $12 billion hospitality industry. Visitors to the area spent more than $1.7 billion in 2012, according to the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. Millions travel to Atlanta every year to locations of leading chains, such as Nordstrom, that operate only in a few key markets.
For years, large air-conditioned malls were on a non-stop growth spurt, culminating in metro Atlanta with the 1999 opening of the Mall of Georgia in Buford, one of the largest shopping centers in the southeast.
But over the past 10 years, consumers have trended away from malls, focusing more on open-air shopping “power centers” or discount outlet centers like Dawsonville’s North Georgia Premium Outlets.
“It’s all about perceptions and consumers think they are getting a bargain at outlets,” said Monetha Cobb, a retail analyst and managing director of Franklin Street Real Estate. “Outlets have grown where mall development has almost ground to a halt.”
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