Getting closer to Jimmy DeLoach Parkway, trees close in on the road and construction crews are scarce. The road and trees are all within the massive Godley Station planned development in west Chatham County.

This is where thousands of houses, condos and offices are supposed to rise. This is where a new regional mall could develop. This is where Home Depot and a Wal-Mart SuperCenter are now drawing customers to their stores across Interstate 95 from the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport.

For now, most of the 5,800 acres are undeveloped.

But don't be fooled, developers say. The foundation of roads, sewer lines and water lines is ready to take on huge amounts of construction in the near future.

Yet, they have even bigger things in mind.

A primed center

"Over the next 20 years, the Godley Station area will evolve into the central employment, office and retail district for the five to six county metropolitan Savannah region," said Harvey Gilbert, president of Gilbert Realty. Gilbert was the region manager for the Branigar Organization, the real estate arm of International Paper that designed the planned community.

It's a bold claim but anecdotal evidence seems to support it. What it might mean for the future of office and retail districts in Savannah, around the Oglethorpe Mall for example, is unclear.

Development has sprung up on the outskirts since the Godley idea to create a community of houses, retail, offices and education debuted in the mid-1990s.

Savannah Tech and Georgia Tech opened campuses across the interstate along with distribution centers for Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Friedmans, Pier 1 Imports and Dollar Tree.

The Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools are planning an elementary school and a middle school in Godley Station and are in negotiations to buy 32 acres of land to possibly build a high-tech high school.

All of those are very big developments. David Howes' story may be more telling.

He and Amy Ahles opened the Godley Station Animal Hospital almost a year ago.

"We both wanted to kind of get out of the busyness of Savannah and just kind of get to the suburbs, so to speak," Howes said.

They had looked at Garden City, Hinesville and other outlying areas but saw a better future in Godley.

That decision has played out well so far, as clients from Savannah, Richmond Hill and Effingham County drop off animals to be treated.

"I think a big part of it is we are pretty well centrally located. It's shorter than going into Savannah," he said. "I see this as kind of being a new hub for Savannah. I think people are getting used to driving here for other reasons."

People or business?

New roads are a selling point. The development is bordered by I-95, which is connected to the new Pooler Parkway and Jimmy DeLoach Parkway, which connect to Interstate 16.

The roads make the planned subdivisions easier to get to.

Housing would have occurred anyway, Gilbert said. But it was key to get Wal-Mart and Home Depot in first.

"Generally you have rooftops that precede retail development," said Harry Kitchen, precedent of the Foxfield Co., which is one of the major developers in the northern section of Godley dubbed the Highlands.

But he said there was so much pent-up demand for Wal-Mart and Home Depot that they went in first. Those kind of companies can also draw customers from longer distances.

Savannah Tire typically doesn't. The company bought land across the street from Home Depot but isn't planning on building anything until the middle of next year because they are waiting for more residential growth.

"I think the more people you have living out there the more people will trade out there," said Trey Cook, vice president of Savannah Tire. "Our customers tend to trade where they work and where they live. I think as the residential grows you will see more retailers."

Around that area, about 500 homes have been sold in subdivision called the Villages at Godley Station. About 2,800 are planned total in south Godley.

The Highlands is slated to have 4,600 single family homes. Construction on those could start late this year or early next year.

Savannah Tire will sit next to an 80-acre development called Towne Center that is trying to lure four "big box" retailers such as Target or Lowe's. Kitchen said that development is also waiting on more families to move into new houses.

At the same time, Kitchen is trying to sell a 150,000-square-foot office complex to a major manufacturer, but that deal hasn't been signed yet.

"I think it's safe to say that it's a national tenant that would relocate 300 families to the area," he said.

Up Benton Boulevard, Kitchen said there is room for a regional mall, on the scale of Oglethorpe Mall or Savannah Mall. But he and Gilbert insist it won't compete with those malls and their surrounding businesses.

"The continued development of West Chatham County will not detract from Savannah's central or southside business districts but provide additional opportunities for its residents," Gilbert said.

To Phillip McConnell, general manager of the Oglethorpe Mall, competition is competition. He said he can see some of the smaller malls drawing from Effingham or South Carolina.

"Any regional mall that would open up right now would be competition to anyone in the city," he said. "It would be hard pressed to put a regional mall out there because of the population base."

He argues the mall industry calculates the optimal market as 5 square feet of shopping mall per capita. Right now Chatham County has about 7.5 square feet per capita – including what is at Godley right now.

"It's a lot of supposition and a lot of hope at this point because (growth in Godley) has got to keep going (to support a mall)," he said.

But if a tenant is found for the huge tract of land that DaimlerChrysler was going to occupy, a mall may be feasible, he added.

The car manufacturer reportedly is looking again at using the site.

For now, Godley Station developers are trying to make the development orderly. All of the land has been sold to a range of developers.

"Now it's got the critical mass," Kitchen said.

By the numbers

Total acres: 5,800

The Villages at Godley Station (southern portion)
* More than 500 homes and 380 apartments built
* 2,846 houses planned when completed
* 618 apartments planned
* 345,000 square feet of business space built
* 2.9 million square feet of business space planned

The Highlands (northern portion)
* 4,639 single family homes planned
* 1,184 apartments planned
* 10,000 square feet of business space built
* 4.2 million square feet of business space planned