The clearest way to understand Global Villages is this: Gwinnett is trying to turn a large, aging mall property into a walkable district with housing, parks, cultural space, and transportation connections.¹

The county has spent years gathering public input, buying key pieces of the property, creating zoning rules for redevelopment, and preparing the site for a private development partner.¹ In September 2025, the county formally opened a national search for a master developer.⁴ That means the project is no longer just an idea on a board, but it is also not yet a fully set final buildout.

Gwinnett Place is one of Gwinnett’s biggest redevelopment stories because of its size, location, and visibility. For years, the site reflected the decline of the traditional mall model. Global Villages is the county’s attempt to turn that land into something more useful: housing, public space, and a more connected district.¹²

What makes this more than a concept is the public effort behind it. Land assembly, planning, infrastructure spending, zoning changes, and transit planning are all moving in the same direction. That signals a serious county-backed reset for the site — and a notable one for a property many people had written off as yesterday’s mall story.¹⁵

Based on the adopted strategy and county materials, the public concept points to:¹²

What is known is the direction. What remains unclear is the final shape.

In September 2025, Gwinnett and its Urban Redevelopment Agency, working with CBRE, released a national request for proposals to identify a master development partner. Proposals were due in December 2025.³⁴

That is an important shift. It signals that the county has moved from planning and land assembly into the stage where it is asking the market to respond. But it does not yet answer the biggest practical questions, such as who will build it, in what phases, and how closely the final product will match the concept plan. In other words, the outlines are there; the full picture is not.

For residents, the project could affect daily life more than a typical redevelopment story. If it moves forward broadly as planned, it may bring more housing choices, more public gathering space, and a more usable environment for walking, biking, and community events.²

It also matters because the county’s public process consistently emphasized issues that affect ordinary life: housing, neighborhood services, cultural identity, jobs, and access. In other words, this is not being framed only as a real estate play. It is also being framed as a civic and community project.¹

For real estate professionals, Global Villages is worth watching because it signals a major land-use reset in an important corridor. The key takeaway is practical: the project is real, the county has committed meaningful public effort and money to it, and the final buildout is still taking shape.⁴⁵

That makes it useful context for client conversations, but not a basis for overstated claims. For now, the most credible approach is to treat it as a serious public-backed redevelopment with important details still to be confirmed.

For investors, the signal is the county’s level of commitment. Public records show major land purchases, more than $49 million in infrastructure commitments tied to the site, a zoning framework created for redevelopment, and a formal developer-selection process.⁵⁶⁷

That makes the site more than a speculative idea. At the same time, it is still important to separate public concept plans from approved vertical development details. The strongest investor takeaway today is not that outcomes are guaranteed. It is that the project has reached a stage where execution details will matter more than vision language.

The Gwinnett Place Transit Center is tied to the redevelopment story. The county approved the transit center design contract in March 2025 in the amount of about $3.5 million, and county materials say the project is funded largely by the Federal Transit Administration with a projected completion in 2032.⁷⁸

That does not mean the full redevelopment waits until 2032 to matter. It does mean transit remains a major part of the long-term picture rather than a side feature — not an afterthought tacked on at the end.

Global Villages is one of Gwinnett’s most important redevelopment efforts because the county has moved beyond vision language and into land assembly, planning, and developer selection. The project is clearly real, but many of the most important details are still being worked out. For now, the most useful approach is to treat it as a serious public-backed effort with real momentum and real open questions. That may not be the flashiest conclusion, but it is the honest one.

Gwinnett acquires property tied to the future transit center and stormwater needs, then announces and completes the purchase of 39 acres of the mall site.¹

The county conducts public engagement and adopts the Equitable Redevelopment Plan.¹

Gwinnett adopts the Revitalization Strategy that proposes Global Villages, partners with CBRE for the next phase, and completes the Macy’s acquisition, bringing county control to 76 acres.²³⁶

The county approves the Gwinnett Place Transit Center design contract, approves the former Sears purchase, and launches the national search for a master developer. Proposals were due in December 2025.⁴⁷⁸