The current configuration of the old BUFORD-CLAIRMONT
MALL. Its reinvention as OUTLET SQUARE (1983) and
ORIENTAL MALL (1996) didn't quite work out. Its third
incarnation, as PLAZA FIESTA (1999), finally clicked.
BUFORD CLAIRMONT MALL
Buford Highway NE / US 23 and Clairmont Road
Dekalb County, Georgia
Metro Atlanta's ninth mall-type center was constructed on a 28.8 acre plot, 9.6 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta's Five Points. The site was immediately south of the corporate limits of the north Dekalb County suburb of Chamblee.
BUFORD CLAIRMONT MALL, a single-level, 345,400 square foot community-type shopping venue, was completed in 1969-70. The enclosed and open-air center was added to a freestanding, 1-level (103,000 square foot) Woolco.
There was also a supermarket (possibly / originally) a Winn-Dixie, as well as a 1-level (30,000 square foot) Sunshine Department Store. The supermarket was not connected into the interior mall and had only an exterior entrance. The Sunshine Store was accessible via both interior mall and exterior doorways.
On February 10, 1971, the Loews Twelve Oaks Theatre came inline. It was a one thousand two hundred-seat, single-screen venue and the second of two Gone With The Wind-themed theatres in the metropolis.
A sister cinema to Atlanta's Tara, which had been completed three years earlier, the Twelve Oaks was twinned in May 1975, quaded at a later date, and shuttered in 1998.
By this time, BUFORD CLAIRMONT MALL had gone through two mall mutations. The first, was initiated by the Maryland-based Rouse Company, who acquired the shopping center in July 1983. It became OUTLET SQUARE.
The Woolco, which had closed June 28, 1980 and reopened as a Burlington Coat Factory August 1 of the same year, was joined by Marshalls (in the south end, Sunshine space). Other stores opening during this time frame included Georgia Girl ladies' apparel and Famous Footwear.
Eventually, this retail format faded. The mall was sold and reinvented as ORIENTAL MALL in 1996...marketed to the area's booming Asian population. Unfortunately, the Hong Kong Streets motif did not catch on. A third mutation of the thirty-one year-old retail center came inline in 1999.
On its third time around, the complex was given an 11 million dollar overhaul. The concept, devised by developers Vincent Riggio and Doug McMurrain, was to recreate a Mexican flea market within the gutted interior of the structure.
Two hundred and fifty stalls were built. There were also twenty-two other inline store spaces in the renovated retail hub, which was given the name PLAZA FIESTA.
The Latino theme went over quite well and remains in place to this day. The center is managed by an Atlanta branch of Beverly Hills-based Kennedy Wilson.
Sources:
www.creativeloafing.com
Cooment Post from "TenPoundHammer"
www.plazafiesta.net
Dekalb County Georgia tax assessor website
Comment Posts by Clay
Buford Highway NE / US 23 and Clairmont Road
Dekalb County, Georgia
Metro Atlanta's ninth mall-type center was constructed on a 28.8 acre plot, 9.6 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta's Five Points. The site was immediately south of the corporate limits of the north Dekalb County suburb of Chamblee.
BUFORD CLAIRMONT MALL, a single-level, 345,400 square foot community-type shopping venue, was completed in 1969-70. The enclosed and open-air center was added to a freestanding, 1-level (103,000 square foot) Woolco.
There was also a supermarket (possibly / originally) a Winn-Dixie, as well as a 1-level (30,000 square foot) Sunshine Department Store. The supermarket was not connected into the interior mall and had only an exterior entrance. The Sunshine Store was accessible via both interior mall and exterior doorways.
On February 10, 1971, the Loews Twelve Oaks Theatre came inline. It was a one thousand two hundred-seat, single-screen venue and the second of two Gone With The Wind-themed theatres in the metropolis.
A sister cinema to Atlanta's Tara, which had been completed three years earlier, the Twelve Oaks was twinned in May 1975, quaded at a later date, and shuttered in 1998.
By this time, BUFORD CLAIRMONT MALL had gone through two mall mutations. The first, was initiated by the Maryland-based Rouse Company, who acquired the shopping center in July 1983. It became OUTLET SQUARE.
The Woolco, which had closed June 28, 1980 and reopened as a Burlington Coat Factory August 1 of the same year, was joined by Marshalls (in the south end, Sunshine space). Other stores opening during this time frame included Georgia Girl ladies' apparel and Famous Footwear.
Eventually, this retail format faded. The mall was sold and reinvented as ORIENTAL MALL in 1996...marketed to the area's booming Asian population. Unfortunately, the Hong Kong Streets motif did not catch on. A third mutation of the thirty-one year-old retail center came inline in 1999.
On its third time around, the complex was given an 11 million dollar overhaul. The concept, devised by developers Vincent Riggio and Doug McMurrain, was to recreate a Mexican flea market within the gutted interior of the structure.
Two hundred and fifty stalls were built. There were also twenty-two other inline store spaces in the renovated retail hub, which was given the name PLAZA FIESTA.
The Latino theme went over quite well and remains in place to this day. The center is managed by an Atlanta branch of Beverly Hills-based Kennedy Wilson.
Sources:
www.creativeloafing.com
Cooment Post from "TenPoundHammer"
www.plazafiesta.net
Dekalb County Georgia tax assessor website
Comment Posts by Clay
4 comments:
Here's a cool page on Plaza Fiesta:
http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A87934
Is there not enough information for a full dissection, MHoF style?
Jonah,
Thanks for the link...I guess I've already been there, hee hee.
Anywayz, yes, there -indeed- is/was more than sufficient information available to do up an induction article for BUFORD CLAIRMONT MALL/OUTLET SQUARE/ORIENTAL MALL/PLAZA FIESTA.
In retrospect, I don't know what I was thinking (obviously, I wasn't...) when I did the original LOST MALLS OF ATLANTA thing many months back....and did not include this center.
I was physically AT this mall....during its tenure as OUTLET SQUARE...
It must have completely escaped my mind, I guess.
So....here is the article as requested.
Thanks for perusing and posting here on the MID-MOD MALL MUSEUM.
Cheers,
Correction: Marshalls space was originally Sunshine Department Store, not Hancock Fabrics. No Hancock Fabrics store was ever in the 30,000 range.
10 Pound,
Makes sense. I added the Sunshine Store reference to the article.
Thanks for perusing & posting,
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