Atlanta developer to build luxury outlet mall near Savannah

This project has been in the works for the last five years and I am glad to finally see it coming to fruition!

Posted: October 10, 2012 - 12:38am  |  Updated: October 10, 2012 - 7:46am
Reported in the Savannah Morning News by Mary Mayle 

The company that built the Mall of Georgia in Gwinnett County and the upscale St. John’s Town Center in Jacksonville, Fla., is planning a 560,000-square-foot luxury outlet mall in Pooler.

The Outlet Mall of Georgia is projected to open in the summer of 2014 in the southwest quadrant of I-95 and Pooler Parkway with four anchor stores, a food court, restaurants and a wide variety of shops.

The proposed $200-million project is set to break ground next spring and would create as many as 2,000 construction jobs, according to Ben Carter of Ben Carter Enterprises. When fully open, the mall would create between 1,700 and 2,000 retail jobs, Carter said Tuesday.

The 170-acre site will accommodate another half-million square feet for peripheral retail and hotel construction.

While financing is not complete and he would not name potential tenants, pre-leasing has begun, with interest from a number of high-end retailers, Carter said.

Abercrombie, Brooks Brothers, Coach and Louis Vuitton are among the tenants in the Jacksonville mall.

“From a visitor’s perspective, one of things that is missing here is really quality retail,” Carter said.

The Savannah engineering and architectural firm Kern-Coleman is working with Carter on the project.

Carter’s unscheduled presentation came at the end of the Savannah Economic Development Authority’s monthly meeting and was greeted with enthusiasm.

“The announcement today that Ben Carter is developing a luxury outlet mall in Chatham County is fantastic news,” said David Paddison, SEDA board chairman. “In addition to the massive construction investment, job creation and additional tax revenues, the Outlet Mall of Georgia will be a significant amenity for our residents, visitors and the millions of travelers passing through the I-95 corridor.

“This will be the signature outlet project on I-95 between Florida and Virginia”

Savannah is the second largest tourism market on the regional coast with 12 million tourists per year compared to Myrtle Beach at 14 million, Charleston at 4 million St. Augustine, Fla., at 3.4 million and Hilton Head Island at 2 million, according to Carter’s research.

“The closest comparable malls along the I-95 corridor are in Virginia and Florida,” he said. “While the Savannah regional trade area alone would not be sufficient to support a mall of this size, the tourist and traffic counts along the interstate more than make up for that.”

Traffic counts on I-95 run approximately 68,000 vehicles a day or 24.7 million annually.

“This is going to be huge for Pooler and all of Chatham County,” said Pooler Mayor Mike Lamb. “This is the shopping piece we’ve been looking for to make us a more complete city.”

Pooler has been in the bulls eye of targeted growth in the area for the last decade, and Lamb credited city council and staff with helping the city make good growth decisions. “We are ready for this,” he said. “Ben Carter Enterprises is the real deal, and we really appreciate them choosing our city.”

Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce President Bill Hubbard agreed.

“There’s a lot of work still to be done, but this is a great organizaion with tremendous capability,” he said.

“We are eager to help in any way we can.”

Read more about the Outlet Mall of Georgia at Upscale outlet mall proposed for Pooler and Atlanta developer to Ben Carter build luxury outlet mall near Savannah.  

A. Joseph Marshall
Coldwell Banker Commercial
Commercial Real Estate Advisor
Savannah, Ga

Savannah Expands Intermodal Railyard

Savannah Expands Intermodal Railyard

Joseph Bonney, Senior Editor | Nov 21, 2011 3:05PM GMT

The Journal of Commerce Online - News Story

Summary: Georgia Port Authority Board approves 6,000-foot extension of Mason Intermodal Container Transfer Facility because of increased traffic through port.

Key points:
The Georgia Ports Authority board approved a $6.5 million, 6,000-foot extension of the Mason Intermodal Container Transfer Facility, as the Port of Savannah aim to further fuel growing intermodal rail traffic.

Construction will begin in January on the project, which will increase to 4,291 linear feet the rail track at two railyards serving CSX and Norfolk Southern at the port’s Garden City Terminal.

Intermodal container transfers at the port from July through October, the first four months of the GPA’s fiscal year, rose 14 percent to 109,036 moves. August volumes were 28,610, a record.

October container volume was down 6.7 percent year-over-year, with a 9.43 percent drop in imports offsetting a 3.48 percent increase in export loads. Through the first four months of the fiscal year, container volumes were up 1 percent.

The port authority posted a 10.4 percent increase to 207,545 tons in breakbulk volumes. Through the first four months of the fiscal year, breakbulk volume was up 14.9 percent 797,486 tons.

-- Contact Joseph Bonney at jbonney@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @josephbonney.

A. Joseph Marshall
Coldwell Banker Commercial
Commercial Real Estate Advisor
Savannah, Ga

Should I walk away from my home?

(Originally published October, 2010)

My Selling Savannah Now newsletter, which is currently more read than my website, generated a reader question:
"Joseph, my home is valued far less than what I paid for it and I can't afford my mortgage payments. I am tired of struggling; should I just walk away?"

Dear Reader, The answer is NO!

Please consider all your options. Perhaps you could rent a room in your house for $500 a month. Could you rent your home and downsize to an apartment?  Have you explored all refinancing options? If your lender agrees, you can renegotiate the interest rate, the number of payments and even the balance due. Talk with your lender about obtaining permission to sell the house for less than the balance due on the mortgage in a short sale. Talk with a lawyer about bankruptcy. Please do not walk away. Here's three reasons why.

Even though the Whitehouse officially rejected a foreclosure moratorium on October 12, 2010, that is not a "green light" to have your home foreclosed on. This is an election year and, as we've seen so far, a foreclosure moratorium is still a big issue in battleground states.

And remember that on June 24, 2010 Fannie Mae amended policy "to encourage borrowers to work with their servicers and pursue alternatives to foreclosure." And by "encourage" they meant punish defaulting borrowers who walked away and did not have that capacity to pay or did not complete a work-out alternative in good faith with their lender.

Punish how? By making the borrower ineligible for a new Fannie Mae loan for seven years starting on the foreclosure date.

Now that this policy is in place, I'm willing to bet it will become more stringent to encourage even more people to pursure foreclosure alternatives.

Lastly, Georgia is a judicial foreclosure state and deficiency judgments are allowed. This means that if you walk away a lender can sue you for the difference between what you owe on the house and what it is worth. And this could occur years down the road after you've gotten back on your feet.

Go over your budget carefully and do your research. Walking away seems easy, but in the long run it definitely is not.
http://www.fanniemae.com/newsreleases/2010/5071.jhtml?p=Media&s=News+Releases&searchid=1287691844653