Reclaiming the Abandoned Big Box

The Making Of Fountain Square Business Center

In the early 1980’s Fountain Square was the first new shopping center in the City of Snellville.  This development sparked the explosive growth within this community and developers soon realized that Snellville was a great place to invest.  Scenic Highway (Hwy 124) gradually had become a central location for retail shops as evidenced by the presence of our nation’s top retailers on both sides of Hwy 124 for miles and miles.  As a result of the centralization of these retailers on Hwy 124 the City of Snellville continued to grow and prosper, however Fountain Square became a thing of the past.  Target was the initial anchor and dominant tenant of the shopping center, so when the opted to leave and open a larger more modern building on Hwy 124 tenancy had dropped at an alarming rate. By 1996, Fountain Square was completely abandoned even though Snellville and Hwy124 continued to grow.

In 1996 a few retired investors led by Ray Mokhberi an Institutional Financial Advisor had a vision and collectively saw opportunity to rejuvenate Fountain Square.  Together they formed Mokhberi Investment, Inc. and purchased the 9+ acre, 87,000 sq. ft. building from Target.  This investment was attractive to the investment group for the following reasons:

1)  Great Value
2)  Great Location
3)  Great City

As a result of the booming stock market and the investor’s heavy involvement in stock market activity, Mokhberi Investment outsourced the management of the property to Real Estate professionals.  Ray Mokhberi at the time was National Sales Manager for a reputable investment company with over 100 offices nation wide with heavy concentration in New York and had a multitude of responsibilities.

In 2003, Ray Mokhberi resigned from his post as National Sales Manager decided to utilize his experience and expertise to start his own Turnaround and Restructuring Company called First Global Capital Group, Inc. (FGCG).  However from 1997 to 2003, Fountain Square continued to be abandoned, and the attached shopping center had changed hands several times.  Still loyal to his investors and his commitment to the community, Ray decided to invest more into the old target building.  In December of 2003, FGCG took control of the old Target building and went to work developing Ray’s vision.

After 3 years of hard work the old Target building was renovated into a successful multi-use office building called the Fountain Square Business Center.  Ray quickly realized that this establishment would not compete on the retail scale so he tapped into another growth segments on the rise within Snellville; Small Business Ownership.   Ray also discovered gold throughout his research by discovering the vast Fiber Optics infrastructure along Hwy 78.

The Fountain Square Business Center is the only business on Hwy 78 that has used the fiber to its advantage and now benefits by having a 5% vacancy rate.  We’ve made several attempts to educate the local groups and businesses about the benefits of fiber optic technology on Hwy 78, but some find it difficult to grasp its enormous potential.  We are hopeful that the impending competition will force our City’s Leaders and developers to look at the potential advantages Fiber Optic technology can bring to our City.

This is a great time to be in Snellville and Gwinnett County in general.  Ray Mokhberi moved his business and residence to Snellville and proudly calls himself a citizen of the City.  He has future plans to build a 4 story 100,000 square feet, luxury office building in the parking lot of Fountain Square.  This building will serve as a home to all businesses that understand their survival will be heavily reliant on Fiber Optic technology due to its cost effective nature, fast delivery, and inexpensive data and telecommunications platforms. 

FGCG and Mokhberi Investment would like to sincerely thank the City of Snellville and the good people of the Gwinnett County Government for all of their help and support to ensure our project’s success.  Without their support Fountain Square might still be abandoned and not being utilized to provide a productive service to this community.  Please stay in touch and come and visit the Business center.  Fountain Square promises to once again to continue to strive for better ways to streamline business activities and make a positive contribution to Snellville’s growth.   Our goal is to educate our business community that we have the power to become a prosperous Fiber Optics Dependent Business industry.