Downtown and inner-city Augusta going to another level (rental, income)

[amlovingit]

Originally Posted by nortonguy

The $1.3 million improvements to James Brown Boulevard/9th street begin February 2012.. The improvements stretch from the parking deck and TEE Center construction in the CBD.. Through the completed library, Red star building, and judicial center in the CBD.. Then the road crosses Walton Way and enters the major construction happening in Laney Walker(homes, townhomes, business centers, parks, roads, streetlights, etc)...

James Brown Boulevard to get $1M facelift
The plan calls for new sidewalks, lighting and beautification on James Brown Boulevard from Laney Walker to Reynolds Street. It also calls for safety improvements to train tracks that run right between parking and the new judicial center. The new investment comes as the city prepares to brand the area as part of a new Laney Walker Historic Trail and welcome increased traffic from the new parking deck and Trade Exhibit and Events Center. The Laney Walker redevelopment is possible thanks to hotel/motel tax dollars. The new tours are part of the stipulations. The DDA said it hopes to start work as early as February 2012.

What about the outside of james brown arena it is the most ugliest arena I have ever seen on the outside. What is those cube design on the arena and they need to add more setting, we can only set about 8000thousand peoples we need to be around 15-20 thousands seats. Then we can attract some big time artists and not during the middle of the week when everybody working. Augusta need to do James Brown some honor and put him a new statue infront of the arena. I do understand they putting street lights, sidewalk and a VIP room inside the arena. Augusta don't know how to us James Brown legacy to their advantage it so must more I can say but if I was a commissioner in that area I will make JB boulevard nothing but James Brown memorabilia so as you walk on those cube sidewalk you can take picture of his memorabilia and put some restaurants name after his favor song Tennessee his elvis we have james brown

[nortonguy]

The sign at the James Brown arena is severly lacking in terms of style too.. The city needs to build a 17k-22k seat arena somewhere downtown.. I don't know if the money being invested into the JB arena affects the exterior...

Authority approves $5 million to fix up James Brown Arena (http://www.wrdw.com/politics/headlines/97897534.html - broken link)
VIP Renovations Could Come To James Brown Arena | NBC Augusta 26

[EastsideDave]

Originally Posted by amlovingit

What about the outside of james brown arena

He is talking about JB Blvd, aka 9th street. The JBA is located between 8th and 7th streets.

Originally Posted by amlovingit

What is those cube design on the arena

That would be the modern design that IM Pei chose for the arena.

Originally Posted by amlovingit

and they need to add more setting

I agree.

Originally Posted by amlovingit

we need to be around 15-20 thousands seats

No we don't, that's way too much. 10-12 thousand is ideal for an arena in a metro our size.

Originally Posted by amlovingit

Augusta need to do James Brown some honor and put him a new statue infront of the arena.

Why? He already has a statue on Broad and the arena is named after him already.

Originally Posted by amlovingit

I will make JB boulevard nothing but James Brown memorabilia so as you walk on those cube sidewalk you can take picture of his memorabilia and put some restaurants name after his favor song

The museum already has a James Brown exhibit, we should just expand on that. The sidewalk thing sounds tacky IMO.

[EastsideDave]

Why in God's name does Augusta NEED an arena that seats 22,000 people when we are only a metro of 560,000? I mean come on! That's the size of Madison Square Garden or Phillips Arena! 10-12 thousand is ideal for Augusta's size.

[nortonguy]

The metro area won't be 560k forever and the Bi lo center in Greenville can hold 16k..

[EastsideDave]

Yeah and? The Greenville CSA is twice as big as the Augusta metro, and they don't even have a 22K seat arena, so why in the heck would we build one? It's a waste and would never make any money.

[nortonguy]

The CSA population vs the population of metro Augusta isn't a fair comparison.. Like I said in my earlier post we need a 17k-22k seat arena..

[tckr83]

South Carolina Upstate - 1.3M people
CSRA - 709,000 people

That's almost double what Augusta has in the area. Augusta would love to have a newer and state-of-the-art arena... but it's not going to happen, not now and not any time soon. I don't see the need for an arena the size of Phillips in Atlanta for the Augusta area.

You could build a much less costly 12-13k seat arena and add 1 or 2 thousand people on the "floor" for concerts, like they already do at JBA. Ever been to the Gwinnett Center? 12,000+ capacity... plenty big.

[tckr83]

Another thing...

The proposed multi-use center on the river for the Greenjackets... 30-40M, and for the most part not very popular with many RC taxpayers. How do you think a $100,000,000M price tag will go over for a new arena? There would be riots in the streets...

[nortonguy]

The people living in RC are ready for the bigger developments.. They approved the TEE Center, library, judicial center, miller theatre, etc.....

The comments on the Augusta Chronicle are the same people(almost all live outside RC and over 50-60 yrs old) who complain about building anything... They regularly bring up the TEE Center, even though the RC voters approved it.. Their the same people who said Deke wouldn't win the election last year, and he ended up with 64% of the vote..

The majority of citizens in RC would support the new arena and the multi-use center...