Abercrombie & Fitch has closed its store at Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth. The store, located on the mall's first floor, reportedly closed January 28. We contacted Abercrombie via Facebook regarding the closure and were told "While we can't say when it closed, we can say we will miss being there." The Abercrombie at Mall of Georgia, now the closest Abercrombie for area shoppers, indicates that the store closed the 28th or 29th and that there was no advance warning given to employees or shoppers, nor was there any "liquidation sale."
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| Image courtesy of ToNeTo Atlanta contributor Rasheed Stevens |
ToNeTo Atlanta was at Gwinnett Place Mall on the afternoon of Friday, January 26 and the store was noticeably slow, but was operating as usual.
The Columbus, Ohio based retailer was one of the last few national brands still operating in the struggling mall. The company closed its abercrombie kids location on the upper level of the mall, about five years ago.
Over the years, Gwinnett Place Mall has continued to lose national merchants and eateries. Retailers that once had outposts in the mall include Williams Sonoma, Banana Republic, Radio Shack, American Eagle Outfitters, Waldenbooks, B.Dalton Booksellers, Gap/Gap Kids, Forever 21, Sanrio Surprises, Warner Bros Studio Store, Yankee Candle, Body Shop, Gymboree, Fossil, Disney Store, Hot Topic, Circuit City Express, Stamp & Coin and Journeys. Belk, JCPenney, Parisian and Rich's are all former anchors at the mall. Former eateries in the mall include Ruby Tuesday, Chick-fil-A, Subway, Del Taco, Pretzel Time, St. Louis Bread Co. (Panera Bread), Great American Cookie Co. , Planet Smoothie, Great Wraps and Barnie's Coffee.
As of this week, Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works, Aeropostale, Champs Sports, Foot Locker, Footaction, Finish Line, Lids, Express, Payless ShoeSource, Macy's and Sears are among the only national retailers still operating in the mall. (Foot Locker, Champs Sports and Footaction are all owned by Foot Locker, Inc., while Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works are both owned by L Brands)
Built in 1984 by Simon Property Group, and once a popular shopping destination for many, Gwinnett Place Mall has more recently joined an unwanted group: "dead malls."
Mall of Georgia, also a Simon property, opened August 1999, about thirteen miles north of Gwinnett Place Mall. While thirteen miles is by no means "close" by ITP standards, the relative proximity of the two malls for suburban shoppers quickly eroded the traffic at the incumbent mall.
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| The former Circuit City Express store at Gwinnett Place Mall |
Discover Mills (renamed Sugarloaf Mills in 2012) opened in November 2001 a mere three and half miles north of Gwinnett Place Mall. Built as an outlet mall, the center features a combination of standard and outlet merchandise. Discover Mills, along with the entire Mills Corporation, were purchased by Simon Property Group in February 2007.
Given the struggles facing Gwinnett Place Mall, its inability to attract new retailers - large and small - Simon allowed the mall to be foreclosed on in 2012. [Simon spun off Northlake Mall, another struggling mall, in 2014. In early 2016 ATR Corinth, a Texas-based firm, purchased the mall, reportedly sees tremendous potential, and has seen robust interest from retailers/other tenants in joining the project. ToNeTo Atlanta expects to have news to share on Northlake Mall later this summer.]
In 2013, Moonbeam Capital Investments, LLC, a private real estate equity firm based in Las Vegas, purchased Gwinnett Place Mall and soon announced plans to redevelop the 1.3 million square foot property.
While Moonbeam has done little in the way of updates or improvements to the mall, they do employ a group of "security officers" whose primary job, it seems, is to limit photography in the mall. The former Subway in the food court at Gwinnett Place Mall is, after all, where a young Georgia State student's decomposing body was discovered last December where it had reportedly gone unnoticed for at least two weeks.
ToNeTo Atlanta inquired about the status of Gwinnett Place Mall with representatives from Moonbeam at this past past year's ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers) RECon convention in Las Vegas and was provided the all-too-familiar "no comment."
This year's RECon convention is May 20-23. By then, one can hope Moonbeam has their act together and has plans to share regarding the future of Gwinnett Place Mall.
What would you like to see happen to Gwinnett Place Mall? Are you surprised that Abercrombie stayed open in the mall as long as it did? What is your fondest memory of Gwinnett Place Mall? When was the last time you were in Gwinnett Place Mall?
Please share your thoughts below.