It’s no surprise that Gwinnett Place continues to generate significant public revenues for Gwinnett County, the county’s school system and the entire state. The findings of a recent economic impact study show that Gwinnett Place had an annual economic impact of $15.9 billion – jumping $2.5 billion in just three years and a whopping $6.4 billion increase from 2017 – all with a primarily vacant property that continues to lose value each year in the heart of the district. The study was conducted by KB Advisory Group and presented to the Gwinnett Place Community Improvement District (CID) Board of Directors during its December 13 meeting. 

“This economic impact analysis clearly demonstrates that Gwinnett Place continues to be the economic engine of Gwinnett County – creating a combined public benefit of $199.2 million in annual recurring public revenues,” said Jonathan Gelber, vice president – KB Advisory Group. “We believe that if Gwinnett County can begin the transformation of the former Gwinnett Place Mall site into the Global Villages concept that Gwinnett County and the community envisioned earlier this year, the economic impact of the area would grow exponentially,” he added.       

The full report includes statistics about demographics and population, area employment, economic activity, education, real estate and more. 

The report highlights include:

Gwinnett Place’s retail sector dominates the community with more than 8.4 million square feet of retail space, over 8,000 jobs (or almost 30% of the area’s total jobs) – generating $749.5 million in retail products. Accommodation and food services comprise the second largest sector with almost 4,800 jobs.  Professional, scientific and technical services jobs continue to be well-represented in the Gwinnett Place area, with over 3,100 jobs, which represents 10% of all such jobs in Gwinnett County. 11% of the county’s jobs in real estate and management are concentrated in this area. The Gwinnett Place area’s workers continue to mirror the diversity within Gwinnett County. 

“It’s encouraging to see that Gwinnett’s Central Business District has a $15.9 billion dollar statewide economic impact even though there has not been significant redevelopment progress on the mall site yet," said Leo Wiener, chair - Gwinnett Place CID Board of Directors. "Gwinnett Place remains the economic engine of Gwinnett County. This small area of approximately 2,000 acres continues to have a big impact on the county, region and state.”

The report continued to delve into the impact that redevelopment of the Gwinnett Place Mall site could have on the area. Over the past 20 years, the mall site has lost 87.66% of its collective appraised tax value, falling from $167 million appraised value in 1999 to $20.6 million in 2022.

“While the mall has been declining for over 20 years, a lot of very smart people at Gwinnett County, the CID and private sector partners have been hard at work setting up all the complicated pre-production work that needs to be put in place before construction starts,” commented Gelber. “The Global Villages redevelopment project is now set up and ready to go!"

Read the full report here.