The Walmart shopping center was removed from Avondale Estates’ annexation resolution — approved earlier this week — after a phone call from State Representative Karla Drenner (D-Avondale Estates) to Acting Mayor Terry Giager.

Drenner said the center was also on a map drawn by the proposed city of South DeKalb.

“I’m glad it’s removed,” said Commissioner Randy Beebe. ”It would’ve been a lot of trouble.”

It was estimated the center could generate $100,000 annually in property taxes. But Giager said that during a 12-month stretch in 2013-14 Walmart had 850 crime calls, which would require the city to hire two full-time police officers, essentially wiping out the tax revenue.

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Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

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