Streets of Buckhead: Detours Ahead?

If they build it, will you splurge?
That’s the question confronting those determined to finally construct and lease out the luxury retail project dubbed Streets of Buckhead.
According to a recent Women’s Wear Daily report, the $1.5 billion endeavor is set to resume building by July. Work on the massive (seven blocks) project was stopped in the spring; around the time when plans to include expansive suites of offices were called off, hopes to add a boutique hotel were shelved, and the projected date for a grand opening was pushed back by a year.
According to WWD, a fair number of exclusive brands like “Oscar de la Renta, Van Cleef & Arpels, Brioni and Etro” are firmly commited to leasing Streets of Buckhead spaces, once it opens. But other upscale labels who’ve shown strong interest are cooling toward the project, “until the economy improves”.
Assuming Streets of Buckhead (“The Southern Address for Eureopean Style”) succeeds in opening by the Fall of 2010, will the economic conditions in Atlanta be able to sustain it? Or will this turn out to be a market where the most common refrain is, “Just looking, thanks”?