Big Lots leased space originally occupied by Richway Foods. Star Clothing was a tenant in the early 2000s.
Photo from http://www.mimms.org / Malon D. Mimms Company
The current movie theater at ROSWELL TOWN CENTER has operated under five different owners, since first opening in late 1985. In chronological order, its proprietors were Interstate Theaters, Hoyts Cinemas, United Artists Theaters, StarTime Entertainment Company and Aurora Cineplex.
Photo from http://www.mimms.org / Malon D. Mimms Company
Our final TOWN CENTER plan dates to 2021. At this time, the south anchor is operational. Unfortunately, the bulk of the west anchor (last housing Hobby Lobby) is vacant, as are the old Burlington Coat Factory and Waccamaw's HomePlace spaces on the Upper Level. The Burlington basement has been leased as the Computer Museum of America.
ROSWELL MALL
Alpharetta Highway / US 19 and Holcomb Bridge Road
Fulton County (Roswell), Georgia
In May 1973, the first earth was turned at a 53-acre tract, located 19 miles north of Atlanta's Five Points, near the city of Roswell. Previously containing the Herbert Hawking family farm, the plot was being developed by North Fulton County's James Howard Chatham, under the auspices of Northside Realty Associates, Incorporated. A prospective shopping mall was being designed by Roswell's Zachary Henderson & Associates.
As planned, ROSWELL CROSSING would encompass approximately 358,000 leasable square feet and house forty stores and services. The first operational tenant, a 1-level (88,700 square foot), Atlanta-based Richway discount mart, opened its doors on August 5, 1974. The store included an adjacent (30,000 square foot) Richway Foods supermarket.
These stores anchored an enclosed shopping mall. Its upper floor was fully-completed. However, due to the stagnant US economy of the mid-to-late '70s, the lower floor remained unfinished for several years. Inline stores in this upper level section opened for business between November 1974 and April 1976. Among these were Radio Shack, Morrison's Cafeteria, Reed Drugs and Waldenbooks.
By the mid-1970s, the shopping hub was being promoted as ROSWELL MALL. It was sold in June 1978, with the buyer being New York City's Walter Samuels. His company, a division of Wisconsin's ShopKo Corporation, developed malls and strip centers for the Kmart Corporation. Samuels convinced Kmart to build a second anchor at ROSWELL MALL.
The (100,000 square foot) discount department store was dedicated, along with the renovated mall, on November 15, 1979. Grand opening festivities included appearances by Mickey Mouse and Chief Nockahoma and performances by a Dixieland jazz band, bagpipe band and mime troupe. There were also fireworks displays and a roller disco party. The Interstate Theatres Corporation Roswell Mall Cinema Centre showed its first features on December 21, 1979. The 4-screen facility, situated on the mall's upper level, was expanded into a 5-plex in 1983.
The history of movie theaters that have operated in the North Fulton County shopping complex is confusing and -at times- poorly documented. We will do our best to tell the story as accurately as possible from this point onward.
Interstate built a new movie venue, on the lower level of the mall, in conjunction with a new Norcross-based Uptons department store. The 3-screen theater, which debuted in December 1985, operated in conjunction with the upper level 5-plex. Both complexes were promoted as the Roswell Mall Cinema 8. The (50,000 square foot) Uptons, on the upper level, incorporated existing mall space and a 25,000 square foot addition. The store was completed in August 1986.
Stores in the Richway chain were sold to Minneapolis' Dayton Hudson Corporation in 1987. The ROSWELL MALL Richway closed in September 1988. It was remodeled and re-opened, as a Target, on April 26, 1989. At this juncture, ROSWELL MALL was in decline, with its shopping concourse flanked by several vacant storefronts. Retail industry insiders considered it "unused and non-functional."
This situation had been exacerbated by the proliferation of community-class shopping centers in the vicinity. Moreover, larger complexes had also contributed to the failure of the mall. First was TOWN CENTER AT COBB {12.5 miles west, in Cobb County}. Then came the too-close-for-comfort NORTH POINT MALL{2.5 miles northeast, in Alpharetta}.
Interstate Theatres expanded the lower level complex into the Roswell Mall 10, with the upper level 5-plex being shuttered. The venue was acquired, and rebranded, by Hoyts Cinemas in May 1988 and United Artists Theatres in July 1993.
ROSWELL MALL was sold to Talisman Companies, of Coral Gables, Florida, in April 1994. An official name change, to ROSWELL TOWN CENTER, was instituted in August of the same year. A 10 million dollar renovation and reconfiguration commenced in January 1995. The mall section was gutted and rebuilt as an open-air power center. Various sections of the old ROSWELL MALL were left unscathed, including Big Kmart, Target and a vacant Uptons.
A new and improved ROSWELL TOWN CENTER spanned approximately 505,700 leasable square feet. By the fall of 1997, new stores were up and running. These included a 2-level (107,800 square foot) Burlington Coat Factory, 1-level (50,000 square foot) Waccamaw's HomePlace (which had assumed the old Uptons space), Jo-Ann Fabrics and Party City.
Although ROSWELL TOWN CENTER was promoted as an open-air facility, its lower floor -or Plaza Level- was enclosed, with tenant spaces lined along a narrow hallway. The Roswell Town Center 10 was sold to El Paso, Texas' StarTime Entertainment. It had re-opened, as the StarTime Cinema 10, on May 23, 1997.
Plaza Level space adjacent to the cinema had been rebuilt as the StarTime Family Entertainment Center. The indoor portion covered 43,000 square feet and included an interactive video game arcade, Funny Farm Comedy Club, Studio Cafe, StarTime Bar, StarTime Birthday Party Room and motion simulators. Outdoors, a 3.3-acre Fun Park featured 18-hole mini-golf, go-kart tracks and several batting cages.
The turn of the 20th century brought several store shutterings. Target went dark on February 29, 2000 and was followed by a new Value City. Waccamaw's HomePlace shut down in March 2001. Big Kmart pulled up stakes in 2002. This store was divided into a (27,000 square foot) Shoe Gallery, (63,000 square foot) Hobby Lobby, (15,300 square foot) Gold's Gym and (17,800 square foot) Rugged Warehouse.
Store defections continued into the early 2000s. Burlington Coat Factory closed for good in 2006, followed by Value City, in December 2008. The StarTime Cinema 10 and Family Entertainment Center were shuttered on April 19, 2009. On the plus side of things, Big Lots set up shop in the old Richway Foods space, with the vacant Value City being repurposed as a Floor & Decor store.
By this time, the 508,800 square foot ROSWELL TOWN CENTER had changed hands on two occasions. AEW Talisman sold the property to Atlanta-based Branch Properties in 2005. The Roswell-based Malon D. Mimms Company acquired it in 2009.
The abandoned multiplex cinema and outdoor Fun Park were renovated. They became Area 51, which included the Aurora Cineplex 10-screen theater and a downsized outdoor facility, now promoted as The Fringe. It featured just two 18-hole mini-golf courses. The complex opened for business on July 31, 2010. Plaza Level space once housing the basement floor of Burlington Coat Factory was reconfigured as the Computer Museum of America. The 44,400 square foot facility was officially dedicated on July 20, 2019.
Sources:
The Atlanta Constitution
The Atlanta Journal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Box Office magazine, January 1988
http://www.awetalisman.com / AWE Talisman (website on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine) / Arthur Weiner Enterprises
http://www.branchprop.com/ / Branch Properties (website on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
http://www.mimms.org / Malon D. Mimms Company
www.cinematreasures.com
https://www.appenmedia.com
https://www.bizjournals.com
http://www.auroracineplex.com
https://www.computermuseumofamerica.org
