Mall of Georgia

Mall of Georgia

Main entrance plaza of the Mall of Georgia °
Location	Buford, Georgia, USA
Opening date	1999
Developer	Simon Properties
Management	Simon Properties
Owner	Simon Properties
No. of stores and services	200+
No. of anchor tenants	5
Total retail floor area	1,786,000 sq ft (165,900 m2)
No. of floors	3
Website	Mall of Georgia

Mall of Georgia is an enclosed super-regional shopping mall located in Gwinnett County, Georgia, near the city of Buford, 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Atlanta. Built in 1999, it is currently the largest shopping mall in the state of Georgia,^[1] consisting of more than two hundred stores on three levels.^[2] The mall's anchor stores include Belk, Dillard's, JCPenney, Macy's and Von Maur (opening September 17, 2016), other major stores include Barnes & Noble, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Haverty's. Also, located in the Mall of Georgia Crossing is Nordstrom Rack, T.J. Maxx, and Target. Also featured in the mall is a large village section, comprising lifestyle tenants and restaurants in an outdoor setting, as well as a 500-seat amphitheater. The mall attracts many high end stores such as Armani Exchange, Swarovski, Clarks, J.Crew, Guess, bebe, and Aveda.^[3] Simon Property Group manages the Mall of Georgia.

History

The Mall of Georgia opened August 13, 1999 featuring Dillard's, JCPenney, Lord & Taylor and Nordstrom as its anchor stores, with Bed Bath & Beyond, Haverty's, and Galyan's (now Dick's Sporting Goods) as additional mini anchors.^[1] The Mall of Georgia also has a 20 Regal Cinema and an IMAX Theater, which is 1 of at least 5 in the State of Georgia; other IMAX theaters are located at Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, The National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning and Regal Augusta Exchange Stadium 20, AMC Southlake 24 in Morrow & IMAX in Augusta. In 2000, Atlanta-based Rich's was added on,^[4] and many more mall stores were added, bringing the total number of stores in the mall to more than 200. Lord & Taylor closed in 2003, and was replaced with Belk in 2005.^[5] Following Federated Department Stores' (now Macy's, Inc.) decision to consolidate nameplates 2003, the Rich's store at Mall of Georgia was dual-branded as Rich's-Macy's, and the Rich's name was dropped entirely in 2005. Nordstrom announced the closure of its Mall of Georgia store in October 2014,^[6] and closed on Saturday February 28, 2015. Von Maur is currently renovating the 165,000-square-foot- two story anchor tenant and will occupy that space by September 17, 2016.

Anchors

• Dillard's (Opened 1999)
• Macy's (Opened 2005)
• JC Penney (Opened 1999)
• Belk (Opened 2005)
• Von Maur (Opening September 17, 2016)

Junior Anchors

• Dick's Sporting Goods (Opened 2004)
• Havertys (Opened 1999)

Former Anchors

• Rich's (Opened 2000) Became Rich's-Macy's in 2004, then became Macy's in 2005
• Lord & Taylor (Opened 1999, closed in 2003) Became Belk in 2005
• Nordstrom (Opened 1999 closed February 2015) Becoming Von Maur in 2016

Former Junior Anchors

• Galyan's (Opened 1999) Became Dick's Sporting Goods in 2004

Statue

The statue atop the mall is of Button Gwinnett, one of the first men to sign the United States Declaration of Independence and for whom its location of Gwinnett County is named.

References

Charles Francis Jenkins, Button Gwinnett: Signer of the Declaration of Independence (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1926).

Harvey H. Jackson, Lachlan McIntosh and the Politics of Revolutionary Georgia (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1979).

Kenneth Coleman, The American Revolution in Georgia, 1763-1789 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1958).

External links

• Mall of Georgia

Coordinates: 34°03′55″N 83°59′05″W / 34.065411°N 83.984702°W / 34.065411; -83.984702