Move Augusta Downtown (Atlanta, Augusta-Richmond County: townhomes, employment, tenants)

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by The Magician

Why isn't downtown Augusta successful?

1. Consolidated Government

How so?

[EastsideDave]

Originally Posted by The Magician

2. Inability to attract jobs..What if Knology, ADP or Electrolux made investments in Downtown. More people downtown, more demand for goods and services, more development.

I agree, on top of the 'normal' incentives that the city gives these companies, there should be some 'extra' incentive given if the business decides to locate within the CBD (however the commission would never allow this because it only 'directly' benefits district 1 and doesn't 'directly' benefit them or their districts). I've said it before, imagine the amount of traffic downtown if ADP had decided to build their facility downtown instead of their sprawling complex out in West Aug.

There's you thought provoking topic of the day

[River_Dawg]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

+1

Not only do you not need a major interstate cutting through downtown to make it successful, but having one cut through downtown does much more harm than good. You don't create a successful city by catering to people driving through. That's silly.

Who said anything about a major interstate cutting through downtown? I said move downtown closer to the interstate 20 and funnel the traffic from the west into downtown. But downtown has to be visible or it in a bad location. It should be obvious why all the companies set up shop in west Augusta. Location, location, location. Who disagrees? Put the CBD in the Lake Olmstead, develop the Augusta Canal into a 'canal walk', connect the Lake Olmstead to the canal and the Savannah make a 'waterway loop'. Imagine having a Water Way Loop via lake, canal and river around you CBD. One side of the lake is the a state of the art baseball complex with all the bells and wistles of a small Atlantic Station. I amid this is a very bold move but for August to pass its peers in the region it must happen.

[EastsideDave]

But it's NOT going to happen, this isn't greenfield land somewhere but instead is already FULLY developed into mostly residential use meaning that the homeowners (taxpayers) would have to be bought out and relocated for anything to even start. Just look at the time it takes for the government to acquire a few feet of right-of-way on people's property for a road widening project, it takes months, years, and sometimes doesn't happen at all. Now magnify that times a million and add the fact that their land would be used for a pipe dream and you have pretty much no chance at all.

[nortonguy]

What is the definition of successful?? It's much cheaper to build out in West Augusta, than up in downtown..

The population of the CBD alone is close to 6k people now.. The top three neighborhoods/areas for Medical District students/young professionals to live are in/around downtown.. The Central Business District is downtown, and Olde Town is located on the edge of the CBD.. The other popular neighborhood Summerville is located btw Harrisburg and West Augusta..

Rural Sourcing opened recently and they're hiring 100 IT professionals at the Enterprise Mill.. Three of the 5k fastest growing companies in the US are located in the CBD.. EDTS on Broad, ESi Acquisition on Broad, and MAU on Greene street..
Three Augusta companies ink their way into the Inc. 5,000 | The Augusta Chronicle

There are tons of residential construction projects underway or completed.. 220-222 6th street is being renovated into apartments, 566 Broad street.. Either residential or a mix of residential and office space, one of Mr. Merry's properties is under contract for high-end apartments, 314-316 Greene street 12 studio apartments in the Olde Town neighborhood, 967 Broad street four apartments, 1225 Greene street apartments, 586 Broad street is next to Luigi's and it's probably first floor commercial and second floor residential, old warehouse at 1130 Jones street will have 1st floor commercial space and four apts on the 2nd floor, and Red Star building fours apts/commercial space..

Keep in mind the 34 condos are underway in the Whites Building, and the Lofts at Marbury(three new buildings, 42 lofts, 10 townhomes) breaks ground this year.

[The Magician]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

How so?

Are you from Augusta? Read a few Augusta Chronicle articles about the Tee Center and Laney Walker redevelopment.

[The Magician]

Originally Posted by nortonguy

What is the definition of successful?? It's much cheaper to build out in West Augusta, than up in downtown..

The population of the CBD alone is close to 6k people now.. The top three neighborhoods/areas for Medical District students/young professionals to live are in/around downtown.. The Central Business District is downtown, and Olde Town is located on the edge of the CBD.. The other popular neighborhood Summerville is located btw Harrisburg and West Augusta..

Rural Sourcing opened recently and they're hiring 100 IT professionals at the Enterprise Mill.. Three of the 5k fastest growing companies in the US are located in the CBD.. EDTS on Broad, ESi Acquisition on Broad, and MAU on Greene street..
Three Augusta companies ink their way into the Inc. 5,000 | The Augusta Chronicle

There are tons of residential construction projects underway or completed.. 220-222 6th street is being renovated into apartments, 566 Broad street.. Either residential or a mix of residential and office space, one of Mr. Merry's properties is under contract for high-end apartments, 314-316 Greene street 12 studio apartments in the Olde Town neighborhood, 967 Broad street four apartments, 1225 Greene street apartments, 586 Broad street is next to Luigi's and it's probably first floor commercial and second floor residential, old warehouse at 1130 Jones street will have 1st floor commercial space and four apts on the 2nd floor, and Red Star building fours apts/commercial space..

Keep in mind the 34 condos are underway in the Whites Building, and the Lofts at Marbury(three new buildings, 42 lofts, 10 townhomes) breaks ground this year.

O.K. nortonguy, I'll admit it. I should have posted, why Downtown Augusta isn't where it should be? To be honest my definition of a successful downtown is no different from anyone else. A successful downtown must be walkable, easily accessible to other areas, have great shopping and dining,top notch entertainment, arts and culture, dense, nightlife, etc....

Downtown has most of the things that I've mentioned above.
Though they may not be related to the things I've stated above, they're some developments that I'd love to see happen downtown. First, I'll get the obvious out of the way. New jobs! Also, a home for the symphony, ballpark, new arena, comedy clubs, restaurants and retailers, the Miller theater to be renovated and opened as a movie theater, grocery store, and a few other things that I can't think of right now.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by River_Dawg

Who said anything about a major interstate cutting through downtown? I said move downtown closer to the interstate 20 and funnel the traffic from the west into downtown. But downtown has to be visible or it in a bad location. It should be obvious why all the companies set up shop in west Augusta. Location, location, location. Who disagrees? Put the CBD in the Lake Olmstead, develop the Augusta Canal into a 'canal walk', connect the Lake Olmstead to the canal and the Savannah make a 'waterway loop'. Imagine having a Water Way Loop via lake, canal and river around you CBD. One side of the lake is the a state of the art baseball complex with all the bells and wistles of a small Atlantic Station. I amid this is a very bold move but for August to pass its peers in the region it must happen.

Visible to who? Passers-through? I totally disagree. There are lots of other cities in the Southeast who are ahead of Augusta in some respects whose downtowns are not visible from the interstate: Columbia, Greenville, Greensboro, etc. Furthermore, it's not feasible to shift downtown towards I-20 when you have to build the infrastructure for that to happen, which is not cheap--especially in a municipality that's experiencing slow growth like Augusta, which translates into a less dynamic tax base.

It needs to be understood that much of what causes companies in a particular city located downtown or out in the 'burbs has a lot of do with the type of industry that's clustered in that city. The companies that tend to cluster in a city's downtown are those like bank headquarters, law offices, corporate headquarters, etc.--and none of these are really Augusta's forte. But that also gives Augusta an advantage in that a lot of those companies raze historic buildings more conducive to generating pedestrian activity in order to build towers that don't do nearly as much to generate such activity. That's why Main Street in Columbia isn't doesn't have the pedestrian activity, retail options, etc. like Broad Street in Augusta does: it has less of its historic urban fabric intact.

The companies that set up shop in west Augusta as opposed to downtown do so because there's really no incentive for them to be downtown. Certain companies benefit from clustering in an urban location and they tend to be more white-collar, high-wage companies of the corporate variety. The jobs that Augusta is attracting and creating are not of that sort, and to be fair, that's true of a lot of Augusta's peer cities right now as well. There are some companies who are drawn to downtown because of a certain appeal it has, and while downtown Augusta has a lot of great things going for it right now, there are still many things it could do to create more positive energy to lure some companies downtown (such as some of the things The Magician mentioned in the above post).

Originally Posted by The Magician

Are you from Augusta? Read a few Augusta Chronicle articles about the Tee Center and Laney Walker redevelopment.

I am not from Augusta and am not familiar with what you're getting at regarding those developments. If local government is inept and inefficient, then being consolidated seems to not have much to do with that as several other consolidated local governments across the country do just fine under that model.

[nortonguy]

All of you have made some great points.. I definitely don't think Augusta is growing slow in 2011... The following developments are open/underway: 115 acre Village at Riverwatch, $100 million Kroc Center, $70 million judicial center, $112 million dental school, Augusta Newsprint $55 million expansion, Potash $40 milllion expansion, Bennett International new warehouse and distribution center $35 million 15 jobs, DSM Chemicals purchasing the former 40 acre Pfizer plant, Algae facility $10 million initial investment and 200 jobs, Electrolux $2.5 million and over 300 jobs, etc.. I didn't even include the developments in Columbia, Aiken, Mcduffie, Edgefield, or Burke..

The reason why senator Johnny Isakson said Augusta has the most construction in the state.. It's probably considering the size of inner city/downtown Augusta compared to downtown/inner city Atlanta.. The developments below are some of the bigger projects in the CBD/Inner city area...

$3 million emporium opened January 2011
$67 million judicial center opened May 2011
$3 million Christ Community Health opened July 2011
$100 million kroc center opened August 2011
$112 million GHSU dental school opened August 2011
$12 million parking deck opens September 2011
= $297 milllion

$38 million TEE Center under construction
$30 million Saint Sebastian completed, but 15th street portion still underway
$30 million Walton Oaks underway
$11 million sheriff's office under construction
$5 million james brown arena renovations underway
$5 million whites building condo expansion(34) underway
$3 million broad street traffic signal/sidewalk/streelight 13th-5th project underway
Broad street camera project(180-190) 13th-5th street underway
= $124 million(not including camera project)

The Laney Walker and Bethlehem redevelopment equals $37.5 million over 50 years($8 million was approved last year)...

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by nortonguy

All of you have made some great points.. I definitely don't think Augusta is growing slow in 2011

A laundry list of projects (that don't even refute the overall point I was getting at) wasn't really necessary, plus I was really talking about population growth. The truth is simply that Augusta-Richmond County hasn't really grown much in terms of population over recent years.