The $200 million number could easily double, Williams told a breakfast meeting at the resort, area sources who attended the session, tell GlobeSt.com. Williams estimated the redevelopment undertaking could add up to 680 new jobs and $100 million in annual revenue to Hall County coffers.

Williams has retained Orlando-based Canin Associates Inc. to master plan Lake Lanier Islands and have the blueprints ready by fall. The first construction phase of the redevelopment is tentatively set for 2008, Williams has told local brokers and government officials.

A potential victim of the redevelopment will be the shuttered Renaissance PineIsle Resort and Golf Club, once ranked as North Georgia's No. 1 vacation destination, Williams has also told local development sources. Williams inherited the PineIsle property in August 2005 after Marriott International Inc. closed the hotel because it was not profitable, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.

The US Corps of Engineers, which oversees the general operations at Lake Lanier Islands, approved the PineIsle property transfer to Williams following an agreement the Corps had with Marriott. That agreement called for the PineIsle to automatically go to the operator of the 216-room Emerald Pointe Resort hotel if and when the PineIsle ceased operations.

Also in August 2005, the Williams family purchased the development rights to Lake Lanier Islands from Orlando-based CNL Hotels & Resorts in a deal valued at $24.5 million, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.