Residential Renaissance: New generation of renters and homeowners repopulating Augusta’s urban core (Oglethorpe: apartment complex)

[Airforceguy]

The Augusta Chronicle this week has launched a new digital magazine called "1736" that focuses on downtown and the urban core of Augusta. I thought I would post several of the articles they wrote this week for the first edition.

A decade ago, the apartment the Kansas native shares with his girlfriend, Alexis, 23, didn’t exist. Two decades ago, most of the restaurants, bars and nightclubs they frequent were vacant buildings – including the Mellow Mushroom pizzeria, where they met. Three decades ago, downtown Augusta was on practically on life support.
Today, the occupancy rate for downtown loft apartments is consistently above 95 percent. Only the most unwieldy and dilapidated commercial spaces remain undeveloped. An eight-story Hyatt Place hotel is under construction just two buildings down from Henry’s apartment. Two blocks to the north is the bustling construction site of the $100 million Georgia Cyber Center.
The revitalization occurring in the heart of downtown is merely a microcosm of what is happening in neighborhoods throughout the urban core.

https://www.augustachronicle.com/spe...tas-urban-core


Rebirth of a Community: Laney-Walker/Bethlehem sees new housing as catalyst for redevelopment

But no project is more ambitious than the Foundry Place, the largest-single investment in the Laney-Walker/Bethlehem area in more than 50 years. The $900- to $1,200- a month apartment community is being built on a 7.6-acre former brownfield site across the street from Augusta University’s Dental College of Georgia.
The development, along with a soon-to-be-announced 60- to 70-unit complex on Laney-Walker Boulevard, is part of Welcher’s strategy to “hurriedly repopulate” the area with higher-income residents who can attract businesses, such as pharmacies and grocery stores, and eventually job-creating industries.
“The Foundry is important because it’s an economic stimulus. It needed to happen,” Welcher said. “It showed a commitment on the city’s behalf, to say that we’re serious about revitalization of these areas that have been destitute.”

https://www.augustachronicle.com/spe...-redevelopment


What’s Olde is New: New investor building on pioneer’s downtown properties

On a recent Tuesday morning, Bob Trescott was showing prospective tenant Quannaires Streeter a couple of rooms available at his Olde Town properties on Telfair Street.
Streeter, an instructor at Augusta University’s Department of Biobehavioral Nursing, said she was looking to leave her westside apartment complex for something more affordable and closer to work.
“This area seems pretty nice,” she said, standing on the porch of 346 Telfair St., unbeknownst she was looking at the oldest home in Olde Town.
After she leaves, Trescott remarks the twenty-something nurse is typical of his tenants: young, upwardly mobile professionals who want to be “in the city.”
“I’ve got a 30-year-old female doctor, a 30-year-old female attorney, a 30-ish female engineer,” Trescott said. “To me, that says something about who wants to live down here. These are yuppie, professional people.”

https://www.augustachronicle.com/spe...own-properties

Link to 1736 Magazine: https://www.augustachronicle.com/1736magazine

[AUGnative]

Seems like an odd name for a publication that focuses on down town. Sounds more like a brand of coffee

[urbandevelopment]

1736 is the year Augusta was founded
by James Oglethorpe

[amlovingit]

Originally Posted by AUGnative

Seems like an odd name for a publication that focuses on down town. Sounds more like a brand of coffee