Academy Sports puts the SPORT in Sporting Goods

Academy Sports, Snellville Ga - Click any picture to view larger

I was invited to tour the new Snellville location for Academy Sports today. The store will open tomorrow -- Friday, July 1st at 8 a.m. Before going inside the store, I thought that Academy Sports would be like Bass Pro Shop. The Bass Pro Shop I've been to at Discover Mills Mall is more of a hunting/sportsman kind of store. Although Academy Sports does have a very decent selection of hunting and fishing gear, it has a wide variety of everything else that's sports too! Turns out, Academy Sports puts the SPORT in sporting goods. The more my daughter and I explored the store, the more we liked it! I think men, women and children of all ages will love this store.

This video shows you Academy Sports & Outdoors' digital golf simulator. Special sensors on the balls help the computer analyze the velocity of your golf ball. Check this out!



The section of the store shown above contains all kinds of local school themed spirit wear. I saw T-shirts and hoodies for South Gwinnett, Brookwood, and Grayson High Schools.



The staff gathers for a last-minute meeting before 40 children from the Boys and Girls Club arrived. Academy Sports assigned a personal shopper and $100 gift cards to each of the children.

Store Director Jay Glasscock (center) and store staff

Academy Sports has brought 150 new jobs to Snellville, so please show them your support! 

WHAT'S THERE: Over 67,000 square feet of footwear, apparel, sports and leisure products plus quality hunting, fishing and camping equipment. Bicycles, swingsets, basketball hoops, baseball gloves, tennis equipment and more. A lot more workout clothing than other Snellville stores have. The store is comprised mainly of the top brands (of everything sports!) like Columbia, Magellan, Sperry, Under Armor,  Asics, Reebok, Nike. 

HOT DEALS: Aussie Sizzler Grill, $29.99. Kingsford 16.6 lb Charcoal $7.99 (only $4 each when you buy 2), Timber Creek Deluxe Armchair, $5.99. Flip flops for only $2.99

I saw many items lower priced than at other stores.

OPENS: Friday July 1, 2011 at 8 a.m., July 4th hours will be 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Regular store hours will be Mon. - Sat. 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sundays 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

LOCATION: 1585 Scenic Highway, Snellville Ga 30078.

*This blog post is not an ad, I was not compensated in any way for it.  I did enjoy meeting everyone on the Academy Sports staff and the visit to the store!

Scenic Highway 124 news

Proposals and changes to come to some businesses on and near Scenic Highway in Snellville.

Del Taco – Interest was shown to occupy the old Fazzoli’s building on Scenic Highway.

Academy Sports and Olive Garden – Second submittal was received by the City of Snellville and is nearing permit issuance.  The applicant hopes to open the store and the restaurant by early July, 2011. This will be located near the corner of Scenic Highway 124 and Janmar Road.

Outparcel 2 (Academy Sports and Olive Garden Italian restaurant - Plans were received by the city for a multi-tenant shopping center.  Plans are under review and awaiting permit issuance, according to the City of Snellville's monthly report.
     UPDATE: As of October 2011, Olive Garden told me they plan on opening December 5, 2011. The first week, they expect to open at 4 p.m. for dinner. After the first week, they plan to open at 11 a.m. This is subject to change, but it's what I know now. 

Barron’s Promenade Shopping Center (Highway 124) – Two tenant build outs have been submitted to the city. They are Archer Global and a dental office.

Fuji Hibachi (Kroger Shopping Center) – Snellville has received plans for this new restaurant.

Atlantic Buffet – Plans have been approved for an interior finish where the old Tennis store (Your Serve Tennis) was in Snellville Pavilion.  Construction is underway. If you are looking for the tennis shop, it hasn't closed but has relocated to 2059 Scenic Highway in the Snellville Pavilion shopping center. 

McDonalds (Scenic Highway) – Plans were received to scrap and rebuild the old Fuddruckers building on Scenic Highway. 

Emory Eastside Medical Office Building Expansion – The project is moving along on schedule.  The curb and gutter has been installed on most of the interior parking lots.  The medical tower is being erected and the outside shell should be completed soon.  This project is estimated to take about 8-10 months to complete.

Emory Eastside Emergency Room Expansion – All plans have been approved and construction is underway.  According to the City of Snellville's monthly report, the  project remains on schedule and has had no problems. Emory Eastside Medical complex is located near Scenic Highway and Ronald Reagan Parkway on Tree Lane.

Snellville development activity

This information comes from Snellville's monthly report. The bold text, colors, and links in this are my doing, to make it easier and more interesting to read, and hey it's fun for me too.

Snellville Kidney Dialysis is under construction. Certificate of Occupancy has been issued.

The strip center development located adjacent to Hamilton Financial is nearing completion. Furthermore, the buffer abutting North Road is nearing planting. Update: A rear parking lot addition is being added to the Snell Property which includes the planting on the berm and buffer. Permit was issued on January 12, 2009. The developer is nearing completion of the rear parking lot but progress has been hindered by the weather. UPDATE - Application has been approved for a zoning modification. Awaiting submission of required landscaped plans.

Received plans for Eastside Village Project has received approval from all authorities. Preconstruction meeting and permit issuance are pending. UPDATE: This projects development permit is nearing expiration. No pre-construction meeting set as of yet.

St. Oliver’s Catholic Church has remitted plans for a parking lot addition and some minor modifications to the existing site. Plans have been approved. Waiting to schedule pre-con and submittal of final documents. Pre-con has been scheduled for August 20, 2009. The Land Disturbance Permit will be issued once final documents and fees are collected.

Carlin Vision has submitted site plans for review for a stand-alone building in the Boulevards Development. Land Disturbance and Building Permits have been issued and are actively being constructed. A Certificate of Occupancy has been issued.

The Boulevards Development had ceased activity due to financial issues. Furthermore the FDIC has taken control of this project. The site is being stabilized and brought in to erosion control compliance.

First Baptist Church has been permitted for a soccer field addition and is actively involved in site development activities. UPDATE: The soccer fields are complete with only the ROW improvements pending.

Received building permit application for complete remodel of The Sam’s Club Store. The remodel is estimated to cost nearly 2.5 million dollars to complete. Approved and awaiting permit issuance.

Received plans for major rebuild of former Pike’s Nursery.

Received plans for exterior and interior remodeling at the formerly Four Seasons Automotive Service located at 2039 Scenic Highway. These plans have been approved and awaiting permit issuance.

Received and approved plans for Panera Bread in the Presidential Markets Shopping Center. Construction complete and a Certificate of occupancy was issued.

The Department has received application for a mattress store for the former site of Hi-Fi Buy location along Hwy. 124.

The Department has received application for a furniture store for the former site of Circuit City location along Hwy. 124.

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Power Outage in Snellville & People Driving Into Ditches

Snellville Police, Fire/EMS, and emergency dispatchers certainly had their hands full this morning.

I was at Snellville United Methodist Church when the power went out, and by the time I was out of the building, I saw several EMS and Fire vehicles, so I knew something was going on. By the time I got home, a helicopter was hovering around, so that got me curious enough to listen to the scanner feed of the Snellville Police that's available on ScanGwinnett.com

If you listen to the communication feeds and make some notes like I did, you will see what a great job all our emergency personnel do in Snellville! They can deal with anything from the mundane to the insane in minutes. It's amazing to me how calm they can remain.

So here's what I found out from the Police Scanner feed, along with some of my personal comments.

A little after 10:30 am, a power grid went down, causing most of the center of Snellville to lose power. Power failure of the traffic signals was a huge problem. Power was out from Henry Clower Blvd, areas all around Scenic Hwy/124 in Snellville up to Dogwood Road. Police were kept busy dealing with accidents and directing traffic.

The intersection of Hwy 78 and Hwy 124 is difficult even when everything's working well, but with the lights out, it was mass confusion because drivers fail to recognize that intersection as a 4-way stop if the lights are non-functional. If you read this blog regularly, you'll know that one of my pet peeves is that people don't know what to do at a 4-way stop...and those are the non-electric 4 way stops! If you take a 4-way stop that usually has traffic signals, and it doesn't have the signals due to power outtage, watch out, something BAD is going to happen! There was an accident between a moving van and a minivan at 78 and Hwy 124.

Power was restored by 11:30 am, but signals at Hwy 124 and the Snellville Pavilion shopping center needed a key to reset the light, which was flashing yellow. The light wanted to be ornery, and it wouldn't reset, so they had to call out Snellville Traffic Engineers to fix it.

All this is going on, a black Chevy Suburban was stolen, or it was broken into, in front of the Old Navy store on Hwy 124. I'm not sure which it was, I could only hear that it was "theft."

But that was not enough. A 2000 Silver Mercury vehicle was partially in a ditch on Skyland Drive near Street DeVille. The car was registered to someone with a Loganville/Grayson address. Can you believe that people make a special trip into Snellville just to drive into our ditches?!? Do they not have ditches in Loganville or Grayson? They really should get their own ditches. It's just really rude to come here and use our ditches. That's all I'm going to say about that. ;-)

So have a better day than the Snellville Police had! I still don't know why the power grid failed.