Thursday, March 7, 2019

[GAME OVER] Dave & Buster's Closed in Duluth

Dave & Buster's has closed its Duluth location at 4000 Venture Drive, not far from Gwinnett Place Mall.  The family activity center, the second opened in metro Atlanta by the Dallas, Texas-based chain, occupied a portion of the former Incredible Universe mega store and opened in 1999.  According to its website, the Duluth Dave & Buster's closed permanently as of this past Monday, March 4.  
Dave & Buster's locations remain open in Marietta, the original, which opened in 1994, Lawrenceville and Alpharetta.  A new Dave & Buster's is expected to open in late August near the South Point shopping development in McDonough.  

In Alpharetta, Dave & Buster's converted a former Regal Cinemas movie theater at North Point Marketcenter across from North Point Mall and opened in May 2017.  

The Lawrenceville location, in Sugarloaf Mills, is about six miles north of the former Venture Drive location and was originally opened in late 2001 as Jillian's, a similar concept, but converted to Dave & Buster's in late 2009 after it and others were acquired amidst the rival's chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.  

The Lawrenceville and Duluth locations seemed too close all along, so the closure, while sad, is not all that surprising, especially in light of the continued deterioration of the Venture Drive corridor. 

Target closed their large format SuperTarget store on Venture Drive in early 2014, PGA Tour Superstore closed adjacent to Dave & Buster's in 2015 and subsequently reopened in a newly built store near Sugarloaf Mills.  Sports Authority and Golfsmith both closed (as did the entire chains) their respective stores on Venture Drive in 2016.  

That said, Venture Drive still has a number of national anchor and junior anchor big box stores that continue to operate seemingly successfully stores.  Among those with a presence on or just off Venture Drive are Sams Club, Costco, Ollie's Bargain Outlet, Big Lots, Kohl's and Studio Movie Grill.  Locally based Haverty's Furniture also operates an outlet store in the former PGA Tour Superstore space.  

Are you surprised that Dave & Buster's closed its location on Venture Drive in Gwinnett?  What is your favorite family activity center?  What would you most like to see open in or around Gwinnett Place Mall or Venture Drive?

Please share your thoughts below   

17 comments:

Ham said...

Surprised it closed? Actually surprised it was still open. Sadly that entire area has really gone down hill and other than Hagerty's no real reason to visit.

Skrybe said...

It's really a tough location to sell these days. You can't get to it right off the highway. You have to get off at an extremely busy off ramp, then cross over all traffic to turn at a turn light that is far too slow, so there's always a huge line of cars. All of this is only if you happen to already know that all of these stores are on the other end of Venture Drive, because you can't see them from the busy road. Honestly, if people had only known the sad state that Gwinnett Place Mall was going to come to, they probably would have opted to build all of those stores right where the mall still stands. It's too bad they can't just do a super swap of locations. LOL

As for me and my family, we did used to visit the Target when it was open, and I think there was a Babies R Us over there too, which we also used to visit when the kids were younger. Now the only reason we go to that side of the area is to go to Studio Movie GRILL. It's a great theater, and it's too bad that it's in a bad location. No one in my circle of family and friends is clamoring to get to Ollie's Bargain Outlet. LOL

Anonymous said...

Oh wow, I literally just went there with my husband like 2 weeks ago! Had absolutely no idea it was on its way out, nothing seemed to be amiss in there, business as usual. Bummer for the employees there. I wonder if they were able to transfer to the other area locations at least.

Anonymous said...

Maybe in 40 years when light rail reaches GP, the area will gentrify back to it's original glory days.

Anonymous said...

Gwinnett is just not a destination for many people other than Sugarloaf Mills and the Mall of Georgia. The whole area really doesn't offer much other than the Asian grocery stores. It has the same big box retail you can find anywhere and there are many places that are more convenient than Duluth. Not a lot of good paying jobs or wealthy people out there either so many in the area don't have a lot of disposable income

Anonymous said...

3rd World Demographics. Dead body in GP Mall food court. All these empty buildings need to be leveled.


AJ said...

Welcome to a diversified Gwinnett. It's only going to get worse.

Unknown said...

Round 1 at Gwinnett Place Mall

Anonymous said...

The wonderful world of diversity - surely to enrich all of our lives. Except no one can explain HOW diversity actually enriches lives.

Anonymous said...

different food, cultures make life more interesting? holy isht, trumpers are even ruining development blogs. MAKE AMURKA WHITE AGAIN

Anonymous said...

@ 11:00 Ouch? The hatred and vitriol from the mentally inept socialists doesn't work anymore. You might as well be campaigning for Trump 2020.

Anonymous said...

Hmm by previous comments logic, Gwinnett used to be a lot more white and it was a lot better, but then why did all the white businesses close if it was so good? Anyways their logic and that logic makes no sense at all along with their random fact less statements.

The people regardless of race that built up around Gwinnett actually SAVED the area during the last recession. If it weren't for them the whole area would be Gwinnett Mall.

BTW maybe everyone missed the report recently that most of the nicest places to live in GA are quite diverse? https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/search/best-places-to-live/s/georgia/

Anonymous said...

Cesspool of crime, drugs, prostitution and traffic. No thank you.

Anonymous said...

"Hmm by previous comments logic, Gwinnett used to be a lot more white and it was a lot better, but then why did all the white businesses close if it was so good?"

Hmm - because white people (with money) are leaving Gwinnett. Millennials don't want to live in Gwinnett even if they publicly state they like diversity, statistical data proves that people self segregate due to 1. Money and 2. Race/Ethnicity.

Even Asians with money are feeling Gwinnett into N Fulton.

"BTW maybe everyone missed the report recently that most of the nicest places to live in GA are quite diverse? https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/search/best-places-to-live/s/georgia/"

Hillary by a landslide ... Bless your heart!

Anonymous said...

different food, cultures make life more interesting?
_________________

Americanized versions of international cultures and cuisines are what you find in Gwinnett. Travel (outside of the US) is the only way to get authenticity.

Anonymous said...

ENJOY ... March 12, 2019 at 11:00 AM

https://www.wsbradio.com/news/local/washing-hands-without-soap-part-failing-health-score-for-duluth-restaurant/1HSqCF0wSERA3GEr2GTjVO/

Anonymous said...

I've been going to Dave & Buster's for over 10 years, but for the past several years, AVOIDED the Duluth location AND Duluth area entirely. When you went into that location, the floors, tables, bathrooms, etc., had trash all over the place and it had turned into a Ghetto & Busta's. I emailed corp about this several times, they finally listened and closed their "hood" location. The Marietta location has turned trashy and ghetto too. Alpharetta location is the only clean, decent location. And the cops at this location do not tolerate that "hood" mentality, thankfully! When the "hoods" come in, crime goes up, decent people and business moves out, and the hood rats turn it into another ghetto. It's not racist. It's STATISTICAL FACTS.

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