Ready for a new risk

Developer maps out Savannah outlet mall. Mall of Georgia builder rebounds from Streets of Buckhead project.

The king of Atlanta retail is back — but not in Atlanta.

Ben Carter made his name by building the Mall of Georgia and then set his sights on transforming Buckhead’s party district into the South’s glitziest shopping hub. Now he’s returning with his first development since he lost control of the Streets of Buckhead project. It’s a plan to build a new outlet mall on the outskirts of Savannah.

His understated project in Pooler may not grab as many headlines, but Carter said he sees an opportunity in the outlet industry, which is growing while other retail sectors sputter. He’s negotiating with about a half-dozen major retailers for the $200 million shopping center, which could open in early 2014 near where I-95 and I-16 meet.

If it’s a more cautious approach than he’s used to taking, it may be because he’s learned from his past. His takeaway from the Buckhead foray is an effort to bounce back by returning to his retail roots, though he said he has no regrets.

“If you’re scared to fail, you’ll never succeed,” he said. “You don’t learn anything from success. You learn from failure.”

Carter’s only one of many big-name Atlanta developers who gambled and lost but lived to fight another day.

There’s Hal Barry, who lost a Cobb County office tower then helped build a gleaming cluster of skyscrapers downtown, selling one but losing control of two others. Within the span of a few weeks, John Dewberry lost Hotel Midtown and swooped in to buy the Campanile building. Stan Thomas is said to be rustling around looking for deals after his mixed-use development in Alpharetta and bid to transform Sacramento’s railyards failed.

And John Portman, the legendary architect who helped shape Atlanta’s