Cobb Center Mall (originally Cobb County Shopping Center ) is a shopping mall in Smyrna, Georgia, United States. It is the second mall built in Georgia, and opened on August 15, 1963.
Video Cobb Center
Initial years
The mall was built on the outskirts of World War II in Atlanta by the parent company of the Food Fair and featured nearly 50 stores including Rich department stores (the fourth in the chain), Woolworths, Dunaway Drug (later Eckerd), Davis House restaurants (later Davis Brothers Cafeteria) and colonial supermarket. The six-screen cinema, which later became the King's Cinema, also opened in a place on the north side of the center. The mall is also initially an open air center with a covered walkway and shops wrapped around the south and west sides of Rich's store, all facing it.
During the first ten years, this mall was very successful and Rich's two storey store quickly expanded with a one-storied north wing that greatly increased the total floor area. The mall is a big blow to downtown Marietta, Georgia to the north. When the mall first opened, almost all major clothing stores in downtown Marietta also have branches in the Cobb Center. They began to attract the tenants, leaving the city center that was mostly dead in the 1970s.
Maps Cobb Center
Enclosing Cobb Center
Ten years after the mall opened, Cobb Center stumbled upon the opening of Cumberland Mall, a much larger mall and shops to a much smaller open mall. The Cumberland Mall opened in 1973 and featured all of Atlanta's main anchors including Rich's, Davison's, Sears and JCPenney. Cobb Center has only Rich. The owners of Cobb Center react to the new mall then quickly closed and one anchor added to the center. The new marker is Grant City, which flank the northwest corner of the mall.
Survive
The change was successful and the mall survived. There are two main factors for success. The first is that Cumberland is the only competition nearby. Second, Rich's at Cobb Center remains very popular. Rich was very successful in 1970 and this is one of only two locations on the northwest side of Atlanta at the time. When Grant closed in 1976, a small low-end chain with a shop in downtown named Kessler took over the location.
Downing, renovation and closing
Finally, the mall can not survive. The first blow came when the Town Center Mall in Kennesaw, Georgia opened in 1986 on the farm. The mall also includes Rich's. Town Center Mall is also much larger than Cumberland and more convenient to the northern outskirts. The second blow is the area around the mall dropped very sharply. The shopping base shrank and so did the mall traffic. At that time, Cobb Center looks very ancient and small with dark wood interior and retro exterior of the 1960s.
Once again, in 1987, the mall was renovated for its 25th Anniversary. This time, it was redesigned for a popular bright pastel display of the 1980s, an improved skylight and mall renamed "Four Seasons Mall" to try to eliminate the stigma of a mall that has been fading slowly for over a decade. As a short-term drive to the center, the Howard Restaurant, which is a small bar and grill located across the street, is located in the former Davis Brothers that takes business back to the center. Unfortunately, this renovation did not lead to expansion and many parts of the mall remained empty, including the former Colonial/Big Star grocery store in the southwest corner, which closed at a mall somewhere in that period.
In the late 1980s, the mall continued to operate with many vacancies and no customers. What keeps this mall alive is Rich and Kessler, both look a little different from the days they open. With top-tier shoppers avoiding the center, Rich's downscaled to the permit shop by the early 1990s and Kessler closed in 1990 without replacement. Howard moved to a new location, and all that remains for tenants are some shops including Woolworth's, Eckerd Drugs in former Dunaway Drugs and Friedman's Jewelry. One of the wings to the mall was burned and closed as well. The mall was eventually destroyed in 1995 except for Rich's, which survived until it closed in February 2004.
Cobb Center rebuild
The former entrance of Rich to the mall is sealed except for the front door and a small mall affixed on both sides of Rich's store. Publix Super Markets opens south of Rich's, its location will close in December 2016 after 20 years in business. The rear parking area of ​​the mall is converted into a football park and Rich continues to operate there until it is closed. The center was also renamed to a simple Cobb Center with no English spelling.
In December 2008, the city council of Smyrna unanimously approved a rezoning that would allow Imagine International Academy to move its school to a two-story section of the Rich building, which includes 120,000 square feet (11,000 m 2 ) floor space. The classical Façade will be destroyed and will be made to look like a "modern school", to open in August for the 2009-2010 school year. Iagine International Academy is now open for business in 2010. [1] As of Thursday December 15, 2016 Publix closed its doors formally and moved to Jonquil Plaza on Atlanta Road in Downtown Smyrna. Former Publix became Dae Nam Farmers Market on Thursday, March 16, 2017.
Gallery
References
External links
- Sky City: Cobb Center Mall
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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