New life for Savannah Legacy Project

The Savannah Mall redevelopment/Southside town center plan is one of the more creative CNU Legacy Projects. It envisions the redevelopment of a large indoor shopping mall and other underutilized commercial properties by applying the classic, historic patterns of Savannah, Georgia.

Due to the pandemic and other factors, the 2018 plan has languished for seven years, but it has recently taken on new life. “We joined an enthusiastic group of stakeholders from across Savannah to discuss next steps for this transformative effort,” says Brent Buice, director of engagement for CNU. The meeting took place September 15. “The City of Savannah has identified several funding sources that can help move along portions of the plan now, with potential SPLOST funding for more significant components.”

SPLOST stands for Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, a type of sales tax that is available for capital projects in Georgia. Although the mall was struggling in 2018, it has been completely closed for the last two years. “It’s a deserted lot with a future that’s unknown,” as regional news source WTOC reported in early 2024. 

Why is the plan special?

The Southside Savannah Legacy Project was led by David M. Schwarz Architects, sponsored by CNU. Legacy Projects are design sessions that create implementation plans to have a long-term impact on the region hosting CNU’s annual Congress, which was Savannah in 2018. The plan was particularly distinctive for the following reasons:

• The world-renowned urban pattern of Savannah, complete with squares at the same scale as the City’s historic squares, was applied to a generic, underutilized suburban site. The mall site is rectangular, and so the design team applied the scale of blocks and a square that are similar to Savannah’s Oglethorpe grid plan.
• The proposed town center is connected to the Georgia Southern University Armstrong (GSU-Armstrong) campus, creating a human-scale gathering place that is currently lacking for the large suburban campus.
• The plan would convert a section of automobile-oriented arterial road, Abercorn Street, into a boulevard, which allows for the campus to connect to the proposed development. The proposal would calm traffic for about a mile, making the area safer for pedestrians and allowing the university to expand across the road.  

Then-Mayor Eddie DeLoach strongly endorsed the project. “My colleagues and I from City Council were thoroughly impressed with the Southside Suburban Retrofit presentation by the team from David M. Schwarz Architects from CNU. Their approach to the area was dynamic and provides the City new ideas to spur redevelopment opportunities in a traditional suburban setting which would complement our National Landmark Historic District and pristine waterways.”

Developed in the latter part of the 20th Century, Southside is about 10 miles from the City’s historic core. Over time, the plan would add a layer to Southside that doesn’t currently exist—walkable, bikable urbanism with useful green space, made possible by a growing academic institution.