If the project is approved and built, it would be third retail complex on the Southside since 1999. CBL officials couldn't be reached at GlobeSt.com's publication deadline to learn the estimated cost of the venture.

But area industrial brokers familiar with the Newnan submarket tell GlobeSt.com the project will come in at about $75 per sf or a total $98 million. CBL's development application with the city of Newnan didn't indicate a development cost.

CBL owns and operates the 1.2 million-sf Arbor Place mall in nearby Douglas County, and the 1.1 million-sf Georgia Square Mall in Athens, GA. The Tennessee REIT also owns several smaller shopping centers.

Mall at Newnan is proposed for a site west of Interstate 85 between Bullsboro Drive, a main commercial artery, and Lower Fayetteville Road. If built, the mall would compete with Arbor Place, which opened in 1999, and the Mall at Stonecrest in suburban Lithonia, GA, five miles east of Downtown Atlanta in DeKalb County. All three malls have 1.3 million sf of gross rentable space.

Mall at Newnan would be the 11th major retail center to open in metro Atlanta in the last 10 years, according to GlobeSt.com research. The Mall of Georgia in Gwinnett County is the largest at 1.9 million sf.

Other area malls are Lenox Square, Fulton County, 1.57 million sf; North Point, North Fulton County, 1.5 million sf; Perimeter, North Fulton, 1.43 million sf; Town Center, Cobb County, 1.28 million sf; Gwinnett Place, Gwinnett County, 1.24 million sf; and Southlake, Clayton County, 1.02 million sf.