A Tale Of Two Walmarts

A developer's shopping center just outside the Decatur city limits has drawn opposition from a wide range of groups, including some neighborhoods inside the Decatur city limits.

That's not the story in Gwinnett County, where the retailer is welcomed to move into a nearly abandoned shopping center on Jimmy Carter Boulevard, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“You can’t ask for a better opportunity to spur economic activity in an area that is sorely in need of it,” Chuck Warbington, executive director of the Gwinnett Village Community Improvement District, told the AJC. “People are embracing it.”

But in Athens, people are very upset about Walmart's plans and are putting up a fight, says Online Athens.

“This movement isn’t anti-business or anti-development,” lawyer Russell Edwards told Online Athens. “We want more redevelopment. We want more jobs in Athens. But we don’t want a 90,000-square-foot Walmart in downtown Athens.”

The developer there is Selig Enterprises, the same developer looking at Suburban Plaza.