Gwinnett County Reaches Deal To Buy Shuttered Sears At Dead Mall
Gwinnett County’s redevelopment agency is slated to buy the shuttered Sears store at Gwinnett Place Mall as it pushes forward on the defunct retail center’s rebirth.
Gwinnett County is purchasing the former Sears store at Gwinnett Place Mall.
The Urban Redevelopment Agency of Gwinnett County unanimously approved the purchase of the 11.5-acre vacant Sears store and adjacent parking lot for $11.5M during the agency’s special meeting on Tuesday.
The empty department store is owned by Northwood Ravin, which purchased it in 2018 from Sears for $11M, according to Gwinnett County records.
The acquisition brings the county one step closer to its longtime goal of redeveloping the ailing mall. Later this month, Gwinnett officials plan to issue a request for proposals from developers for their vision on the mall’s rebirth, Nicole Love Hendrickson, who heads the URA and is chairwoman of the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners, told Bisnow on Wednesday.
Those visions would likely involve developers razing parts of the existing mall, Hendrickson said. The main 562K SF enclosed portion of the mall — which the county purchased from Moonbeam Capital in 2021 for $23M — was used as a set for Netflix’s Stranger Things in 2019.
“It’s likely some parts of it will have to be torn down, but we have to wait for those proposals to come back to see what needs to stay, what needs to go,” she said.
The Sears deal is expected to close by the end of October, after which point the county will command 87.5 acres of the mall property, including the former Macy’s department store that Gwinnett purchased in 2024 for $16.5M.
The sale officially ends any ambition Northwood Ravin, which is primarily a multifamily developer, had for the former Sears store. Hendrickson said talks about the county buying its portion of Gwinnett Place Mall had been evolving for some time but became more realistic after Gwinnett bought the Macy’s anchor last year.
“It signaled to them that it was time to let go of the property,” she said.
Charlotte-based Northwood Ravin didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The Board of Commissioners approved a plan in 2023 to redevelop the mall with up to 3,800 new housing units set in seven different villages, 55K SF of retail centered around a 4.4-acre central park, 50K SF of office, and a 52K SF international community cultural center and a public parking garage.
The county is also proposing turning the current ring road around the mall into a 1.25-mile greenway with sidewalks and a cycle track.
The two open mall anchors, Asian department store Mega Mart and beauty supply retailer Beauty Master, own their own spaces. Hendrickson said the county has reached out in the past about acquiring their real estate so Gwinnett can have complete control over the property, but those talks have gone nowhere.
“I think ultimately having 100% of the property would give us prime opportunity to redevelop it,” she said. “Having the existing anchor tenants there will make it a challenge but won’t make it impossible. We are not pressuring any of the anchor owners to give up their properties.”
The redevelopment will also include a new multimodal hub for rapid bus, microtransit and vehicles, called the Gwinnett Place Transit Center, a project largely funded by the Federal Transit Administration. The transit center, located on a county-owned parcel across from the former Macy’s department store, is expected to finish in 2032.
The actual redevelopment of the mall, though, will likely take much longer. Hendrickson said the eventual developer and its vision for the project will determine the timeline for redevelopment.
“Commercial mall redevelopment typically takes 25 to 30 years,” Hendrickson said. “It’s a legacy project. I probably won’t be in office by the time this is complete. But I can say I had a hand in getting it off the ground.”
