Savannah — Gen. James Oglethorpe, Georgia's founder, designed this Colonial-era town in 1733 around a series of town squares with churches, shops, homes and stables evoking old Europe.

Savannah eventually blossomed into one of the country's most livable and unique cities with Victorian-, Italianate- and Federalist-style homes lining oak-shaded streets leading to a bluff overlooking the river.

A developer aims to replicate Savannah's style with a massive residential-retail-commercial project, Savannah River Landing, just east of downtown and connected by the old town's streets and the riverside's red-brick walkway.

Whatever would Gen. Oglethorpe think?

"He would be pleased to see his vision translated into a contemporary setting," said Mark McDonald, executive director of the nonprofit Historic Savannah Foundation.

Valdosta-based Ambling Cos. Inc. has laid sewer lines, cut curbs and sold 11 condos at Savannah River Landing. It's an $800 million bet that well-heeled locals, Atlanta second-home owners and Northern retirees will buy into an updated version of the city's Colonial charm.

Ambling's 54-acre plan, slightly larger than Oglethorpe's original town, will likely include two hotels, 600 condos, 110 town homes and 17 "waterfront estates" — Charleston-like mansions whose lots start at $1.75 million. Add 50 street-level shops and office buildings rising no more than 10 stories, and Ambling's project rivals in square footage — 2 million square feet — City Hall East on Ponce de Leon Avenue in Atlanta.

The riverine project also will include six Oglethorpe-like town squares and upscale amenities such as detached carriage houses and customized wrought-iron railings.

"We want to pay reverence to Savannah; we don't want to create a Disney-esque version of the old town," said Stephen Johnson, Ambling's senior vice president.

Savannah, long a sleepy second cousin to bustling Charleston, is on a development roll fueled by America's demographic surge southward and coastward. A half-million people live in Georgia's six coastal counties. Twice as many will likely call the coast home by 2030.

Savannah College of Art and Design has refurbished dozens of downtown buildings and spurred growth. Tourism, now a year-round undertaking, is booming.

And, like Atlanta, restaurateurs, shopkeepers and home builders have returned to the urban core. Ellis Square, near the City Market, is undergoing a huge renovation with underground parking, condos, offices, shops and a hotel.

Four years ago, a Florida developer proposed a high-rise, gated condo project in a run-down, swampy tract of land east of downtown that used to be the city's dockyard. Town fathers weren't excited.

"We said, 'This really isn't Savannah. Can we work with you on maybe something different?' " Assistant City Manager Chris Morrill recalled.

Eventually, the owner of an adjoining property bought out the Floridians, and the city hired Christian Sottile, a SCAD professor and urban planner, to brainstorm Savannah's eastward push. Ambling soon cobbled together the 54-acre tract between the river and East President Street and hired Sottile as a consultant.

It took a year to fill in and level off the bluff that will be home to Savannah River Landing. Most of the dirt — 500,000 cubic yards, costing $6 million — was, fittingly, trucked over from Ellis Square.

"Even the fill dirt is historic," Johnson said.

State-backed bonds will cover most of the $8.8 million needed to extend the river walk 2,100 feet to Ambling's project. The city will spend $800,000 on the walkway and other upfront infrastructure, Morrill said, with a potential property tax windfall of $85 million over 20 years.

"Our goal was to make this a true extension of downtown that was open to the public for all Savannahians to enjoy," Morrill said. "This is a fairly unique urban development with very short blocks and much open space. We're really excited and hope this will serve as a model for development on the west side of downtown and Hutchinson Island" across the river.

Ambling, a residential and college dorm builder — including Georgia State University's newest residence hall in downtown Atlanta — will line the squares and a park with 30-foot oaks so the development more quickly resembles old Savannah. Berms and more trees will block the project's eastern edge from neighboring industrial zones.

A "day dock" will allow boaters to tie up along the bend in the Savannah River about three miles below the Talmadge Memorial Bridge. A marina across the river at Hutchinson Island is also planned. A performing-arts theater, spas and a sorely needed 3,000-spot parking deck round out the amenities.

Congress, Bryan, Boundary and, possibly, Broughton streets will be extended from old into new Savannah.

At the moment, though, no buildings are rising at Savannah River Landing. The souring economy and home-buyer skittishness has pushed development back at least four months, Johnson said. But construction should begin this summer and end within a decade. Residents could be strolling Savannah's newest squares by 2010.

The project "is very sensitive to the city's original plan," said McDonald, the preservationist. "It won't take an expert to see that it's not an 18th- or 19th-century environment. But it is a 21st-century version of it. It's unprecedented, really."

Savannah River Landing

(approximations, according to Ambling Cos. Inc.)

$800

million

project

10

years

to build

54

acres

6

town squares

2

hotels

600

condos

110

town homes

17

waterfront estates

50

shops

The master plan

A Valdosta-based developer plans to re-create old Savannah just east of the city's historic downtown district with a 54-acre commercial-residential-retail project called Savannah River Landing.

1. Residential, hotel, retail and parking

2. Residential, retail and parking

3. Office parking

4. Parking and retail

5. Residential and parking

6. Hotel

7. Retail

8. Estate homes

9. Town homes

10. Squares

11. Grocery stores