Three national developers confirm to GlobeSt.com that they are racing to land the first major anchor for proposed 1-million-sf regional shopping centers in the largely rural county of 140,000 permanent residents, 20 miles southeast of Downtown Atlanta.

The players are locally based Cousins Properties; CBL & Assoc. Properties of Chattanooga, TN; and a partnership of Simon Property Group of Indianapolis and Cincinnati-based North American Properties.

Assuming all of the county and state paperwork is completed this year, the first mall along Interstate 75 would open in 2008, area retail brokers familiar with comparable projects tell GlobeSt.com. The new malls would almost certainly be the death knell for the struggling Southlake Mall in nearby Morrow, GA, Clayton County and Tanger Outlet in Locust Grove, GA, brokers say.

The 1.9-million-sf Mall of Georgia in Gwinnett County is the largest in Georgia. The Simon-North American mall in Henry County is tentatively planned for 1.2 million sf. CBL is banking on the state building a proposed new $20 million interchange at Bethlehem Road in Henry to make its project workable, brokers tell GlobeSt.com. Seven I-75 interchanges already serve the county.

Henry County has surfaced as a plum location, largely because of an estimated 103% population growth in the last 10 years, according to local planners. As an example, in the 2000 census the population was 119,341. Today, the number approaches 140,000.

The mall rush to Henry County comes as Doug Adams and his DRA Development Co. of Stockbridge, GA plan to develop a total two million sf of mixed-use product on 893 acres in the county, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.

Henry County is considered the second-fastest growing county in metro Atlanta behind Forsyth County. Henry is also ranked among the 10 fastest-growing counties in the United States, according to census demographics.