Mall of Georgia in Buford is the largest mall in the state, the dominant retail destination for the northeast Atlanta suburbs. Stores here turn over steadily, and when a brand signs a lease the landlord calendar starts immediately: rent commences and the space is expected open by a fixed date. Plescia Construction & Development performs fast-track retail interior fit-outs at Mall of Georgia — overlapping design, procurement, permitting, and construction so a raw or existing space becomes an open, revenue-generating store as quickly as the mall’s schedule demands, without cutting corners on quality or code. The result our tenants care about is simple: a store that opens on the promised date and passes inspection the first time.
A brief history of Mall of Georgia
Mall of Georgia opened on August 13, 1999, developed and built by Simon Property Group, which still owns and manages it. From the start it paired a large enclosed mall with an outdoor village of lifestyle retailers and restaurants around a 500-seat amphitheater, and it has been the largest shopping mall in the state ever since.
Construction and development
Mall of Georgia totals roughly 1.85 million square feet across two main levels with a partial third floor and around 225 stores, anchored by Von Maur, Macy’s, Dillard’s, Belk, JCPenney, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and a 20-screen Regal cinema with IMAX. It sits in unincorporated Gwinnett County near Buford, about 35 miles northeast of Atlanta off Interstate 85, with the adjacent Mall of Georgia Crossing power center nearby. Because it combines an enclosed mall with an open-air village, conditions and access vary across the property, so verifying how a given storefront ties into the base building is the first step in any fast-track fit-out here.
The intricacies of retail construction inside an occupied mall
Building a store inside a live mall is very different from ground-up work. The center stays open and full of shoppers throughout construction, so a fit-out at Mall of Georgia is governed as much by logistics and coordination as by the drawings. Plescia plans each project around the realities of an occupied, revenue-producing building:
- After-hours and night work for noisy, dusty, or common-area-impacting activity, phased so neighboring stores never have to close.
- Landlord “tenant criteria” standards — storefront lines, sign bands, closure barricades, and utility tie-in points follow the mall’s design-criteria manual, not just the tenant’s drawings.
- Temporary barricades and hoarding built to the mall’s graphic and safety standards, protecting shoppers and screening the work.
- Service-corridor and loading-dock logistics — deliveries, dumpsters, and material handling scheduled through shared docks and freight elevators in tight windows.
- Base-building tie-ins — sprinkler, fire alarm, HVAC, and electrical connections coordinated with the mall’s systems, often under supervised shutdowns.
- Hot-work permits and fire watch, dust and odor control, protection of common-area finishes, and constant housekeeping right up to the barricade line.
Sequencing all of this — not the raw construction — is usually what determines whether a store opens on time. Long-lead items like storefront glass, millwork, and specialty equipment are identified and ordered on day one, and the schedule is built backward from the landlord’s required open date.
Interfacing with Gwinnett County
Mall of Georgia sits in unincorporated Gwinnett County, so permits and inspections run through the county under the Georgia State Minimum Standard Codes. As the largest mall in the state on the fast-growing I-85 corridor northeast of Atlanta it stays busy, and metro Atlanta’s notorious traffic shapes delivery timing and crew access. Its open-air village component also means some storefronts are exposed to the weather. Like most malls the property enforces a construction and delivery freeze through the peak holiday selling season. A realistic schedule here is built around the county’s process, the traffic, and the retail calendar.
Working with local building officials
All construction here is regulated under the Georgia State Minimum Standard Codes (based on the International Building Code), with permits and inspections handled through the Gwinnett County building permitting office and its sub-code officials for building, electrical, plumbing, and fire. A retail build-out typically also involves separate sign permits, fire-subcode review of any sprinkler and alarm changes, and — for any restaurant or food tenant — health-department review of the food-service scope. A fast-track fit-out depends on keeping that whole process moving in parallel with the work: a clean, code-compliant permit set, quick resolution of plan-review comments, any required special inspections, rough and final inspections sequenced to the build, and a temporary certificate of occupancy so the store can open on the landlord’s date while final punch items close out. Plescia manages that permitting and inspection track directly and maintains the working relationships with local officials that keep it from becoming the bottleneck.
Coordinating with Mall of Georgia mall management
Every project at Mall of Georgia runs through Simon Property Group’s tenant-coordination process, which sits alongside the municipal permitting track and is just as important to hitting a date. Before a tool is on site, that means landlord-approved drawings, certificates of insurance meeting the mall’s required limits, a signed contractor rules-of-conduct agreement, and badging for every worker. During construction it means honoring approved work hours, staging and hoisting only where permitted, using designated docks and freight routes, protecting common-area finishes, removing waste on the mall’s terms, and coordinating any utility interruption with mall operations and security in advance. At closeout the landlord expects a clean turnover — inspections passed, barricade removed on schedule, and the space delivered show-ready. Plescia’s job is to make that coordination invisible to the tenant, carrying the landlord’s and the municipality’s requirements so the brand can focus on merchandising and opening.
How Plescia keeps a fit-out on the fast track
Speed on a mall build-out comes from process, not shortcuts. We begin procurement of long-lead items — storefront systems, custom millwork, specialty lighting and equipment — on day one, because those deliveries, not the labor, usually set the critical path. We run the permit application in parallel with the closeout of design instead of waiting for a fully finished set, and we build a milestone schedule backward from the landlord’s required open date so every trade, inspection, and delivery has a fixed slot. Night and weekend crews compress the work that has to happen while the mall is dark, and a single Plescia point of contact coordinates the tenant’s design team, the local building department, and mall management at the same time, so nothing sits waiting on a hand-off. Just as important, we surface problems early — a long-lead conflict, a code question, a landlord condition — while there is still time to solve them, rather than discovering them at final inspection.
Fast-track retail fit-outs at Mall of Georgia are one part of Plescia Construction & Development’s broader commercial general contracting practice, which spans multiple states and markets from our regional offices. On every one, the goal is the same and it is measurable: a finished, code-compliant, inspection-ready store, turned over clean and open on the date the lease demands. If you are planning a build-out at Mall of Georgia, we can help you hit that date.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Plescia build out a store while Mall of Georgia stays open?
Yes. We phase retail fit-outs at Mall of Georgia around the mall’s operating hours, performing noisy, dusty, or common-area work after hours and behind approved barricades so neighboring stores and shoppers are never disrupted.
Who handles permitting for a store build-out at Mall of Georgia?
Plescia manages the entire permitting and inspection process under the Georgia State Minimum Standard Codes (based on the International Building Code) through the Gwinnett County building permitting office and its building, electrical, plumbing, and fire sub-code officials, including any sign, fire-subcode, or health-department reviews, and drives toward the temporary certificate of occupancy needed to open.
What is a fast-track retail fit-out?
A fast-track fit-out overlaps design, procurement, permitting, and construction instead of running them in sequence, and orders long-lead items immediately, so a leased space becomes an open, inspection-ready store in the shortest possible time — the approach a mall like Mall of Georgia requires to hit landlord open dates.
How does Plescia coordinate with Mall of Georgia mall management?
We work through Simon Property Group’s tenant-coordination process — landlord-approved drawings, certificates of insurance, contractor rules of conduct, worker badging, designated docks and freight routes, and scheduled utility shutdowns — so the landlord’s requirements are met without slowing the tenant’s opening.
How long does a fast-track retail fit-out at Mall of Georgia take?
It depends on the size and complexity of the space, but the point of fast-tracking is to compress the timeline as much as the work safely allows — overlapping design, procurement, and permitting, ordering long-lead items immediately, and using night and weekend crews — so a tenant at Mall of Georgia opens on the landlord’s required date rather than weeks later, and passes inspection the first time.
Is Mall of Georgia the largest mall in Georgia?
Yes. Mall of Georgia is the largest mall in the state, combining a large enclosed mall with an open-air village. We fast-track fit-outs across both, planning for the different access and weather exposure each involves.
Who owns and manages Mall of Georgia?
Mall of Georgia is owned and managed by Simon Property Group, which developed it in 1999. We coordinate each fit-out through Simon’s tenant-coordination process.