Horse racing coming to Augusta? (Waynesboro, Jackson: hotel, houses, university)

[Hot_Mike]

I will give to south Augusta first. That's because it's badly needed in that area. The city leader should try to make south Augusta just as dense as west or north Augusta. I believe a horse racetrack/ casino in south Augusta would be a good reason to start.

[EastsideDave]

Originally Posted by Hot_Mike

I will give to south Augusta first. That's because it's badly needed in that area. The city leader should try to make south Augusta just as dense as west or north Augusta. I believe a horse racetrack/ casino in south Augusta would be a good reason to start.

Investors don't build somewhere just because an area is underdeveloped, they build where they have the greatest chance of being profitable...the reason why there isn't much private development in south Augusta is because investors don't view it as a profitable area...it's not just 'chance' that all the major shopping destinations are in west Augusta and not south Augusta, there's a reason why the Regency Mall closed and why it's remained vacant for so long (but I'll go into that another day). Though, a project of this magnitude could be the jumpstart that area needs to get it growing (since it would be a government funded project, why not put the track there, it could be south Augusta's big draw), but the city would have a hard time convincing the private sector to follow.

[nortonguy]

The regency mall area is still trying to improve. It'll be another 1-1 1/2 years before it starts to seen a big change. If the Sheriff's office decides to located in Southgate Shopping center. Which has a over 50% chance of happening. That would really help out alot. The number of people working in Southgate. The workers would need a bank, restaurant, etc.. Two restaurants, a clothing store, little ceasars, have opened around Regency Mall. The progress is there but its slow.


The outer South Augusta area approcahing Blythe, Hephzibah, and Mcbean. The money is there to support a large shopping center. Goshen, South Lake estates, and Diamond Lakes have a median income over 50k. I doubt the population is there yet though. Colony Plaza off Windsor Spring/Peach Orchard rd. The area is inner 520 South Augusta like the Regency Mall area. But Colony Plaza is on the edge of being outer 520. They're adding 4 acres of development to Colony Plaza. There are areas who are seen as profitable in South Augusta. Goshen, Diamond Lakes, Colony Plaza, Tobacco rd, Peach Orchard, etc..

[Hot_Mike]

The whole point of of me saying bring the race tracks, casino and rail to South Richmond is to attract the private sector. The city wont have convince no one, the profits will do that. Horse creates 7 jobs, there will be hundreds of horses. Lets do some math.

100(horses) x 7(jobs) = 700 employed indivuals

Now these employed will need a place to live, eat and play. Notice Im only talking about the worker not the horse lovers, gamblers, construction workers, the locals etc.
During a meet their could be upwards of 800-1000 horses so Im being real modest with the numbers. the point is to bring attention to south Richmond, the private sector is waiting on augusta to do something like this.

[EastsideDave]

I agree wholeheartedly with what you've said Hot_Mike.

And to nortonguy, just curious, what's going on in the next 1-1.5 years that's going to make the Regency Mall area suddenly attractive to businesses? I personally think it's going to take a LOT more than the Sheriff's office and 1 year to change that area, but that's just me. The thing that's really detrimental to these areas around that part of town (including Hyde Park, Regency area, etc.) is the presence of these 'dirty' businesses. Just take a look at Google Earth or Bing Maps, there are junkyards and scrap metal yards and all sorts of dirty, eyesore establishments built right in the middle neighborhoods. You guys know what I'm talking about? I can make a graphic showing what I'm talking about if you want me to. Whoever was in charge of planning and zoning in the past was a complete buffoon. What would really improve the quality of life in that whole area is if the city closes those types of 'businesses' and does a little brownfield redevelopment on the properties. This would result in the quality of life increasing in the area, as well as the area looking better to investors.

Another thing that need's to happen is the city needs to seize the Regency Mall land/building (they could cite 'public safety risk' or something), and tear down the building, grade the land, and put it up for sale (removing the building would allow people to easier forget the failures of the past, the mall almost has become a symbol for failure); maybe another thing the city could do is remove one of the lanes on Gordon Hwy (4 lanes in each direction is kind of unnecessary for today's traffic patterns, 3 lanes each way would suffice). In their place a planted median with ornamental trees and grass could be installed, this would make the corridor so much more attractive, plus they could initiate some sort of business signage ordinance to make businesses have to get rid of those ugly 'highway signs' and in their place install more attractive uniform looking signs lower to the ground. Just these simple changes would completely change the look of Gordon Hwy for the better, and could result in the removal of apprehension that some people have of that area.

[Hot_Mike]

This vision gets better and better everyday. 4300 jobs are coming to south Richmond and 800 permenant jobs by 2017. The vote for gambling should on this years ballot if it passes the house with 2/3 of the votes. Tracks in Atlanta, Augusta and Savannah would give Augusta a chance compete with other gambling states.

[Hot_Mike]

Are you worried about the lack of jobs for Georgians?
Do you appreciate the wonderful quality of life we enjoy in our rural counties?

There's a new bill in the State House that could make an important difference. HR1177 is the first step in bringing horse racing to Georgia.
Experts say that seven jobs are created for every racing horse - that could mean nearly 20,000 jobs for Georgians! Some of the jobs are obvious - trainers, jockeys, grooms. But think of all the collateral jobs that will be created in accounting, advertising and marketing, hospitality and construction, for example, plus all the new horse farms that will be established - supporting current landowners, barn and fence builders, veterinarians and farriers.


Real Estate Blog - Jobs for Georgians! HR1177 - Horseracing

[EastsideDave]

Just take a look at this: Prairie Meadows - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This track is what's known as a 'racino'. It's got a horse racing track, and a casino with slot machines and card tables. It was built one year after Iowa legalized parimutuel betting in the state. It's operated as a local nonprofit also so it's profits are given to local community projects.

Now for the big part, the track's gross revenue for the 12-month period ending June 30, 2008, was nearly $193 million.

Just think of what having a track in Augusta could do for the city!
If the question of legalizing parimutuel betting is put on the ballot, VOTE YES!!!

[Hot_Mike]

ESD, you know it all about location, location, location! Where would you put it? Downtown, west Augusta, south Augusta etc.

[EastsideDave]

Originally Posted by Hot_Mike

ESD, you know it all about location, location, location! Where would you put it? Downtown, west Augusta, south Augusta etc.

Well, my original idea of having it in/near downtown just isn't practical, plus West Augusta is DEFINITELY out, and an ideal location would be within a few miles of the interstate (either 520 or 20, but I 20 is out since it's so built up around it). Also, I wouldn't put it much farther south than Tobacco Road (that is unless a controlled access highway was built connecting the far reaches of southern Richmond county with I 520).

I think that a rather nice location would be the intersection of Doug Barnard Parkway and Gordon Highway. The city was talking about moving everyone out of Hyde Park and building a retaining pond there, so if that happened, just a set of RR tracks would need to be moved and there would be more than enough land. If that side of the road didn't work, they could put it on the eastern side of D. Barnard (but idk if that land is part of protected Phinizy swamp or not). The benefits of this site is its location adjacent to Gordon Hwy, its proximity to I520, and plus Doug Barnard could easily be made a limited access hwy from Gordon to the interstate if necessary. Plus this location could benefit both downtown and south Augusta because it's smack dab in the middle of both. Plus it could spark more (re)development in nearby Bethlehem and Laney Walker.

The only problem with the Regency Mall site previously mentioned is that there could be traffic problems because of the congestion on Gordon Hwy. If they could somehow make Deans Bridge limited access, then this site would work (that's why I say putting it off of Doug Barnard would work, because it could easily be made limited access because there's not much located on it), though there may be size restraints to the Mall site.

Other potential locations could be the unused land south of the airport and north of the paper mill or that big open space directly across 520 from Augusta Tech, but I think that somebody on here said before that that was being developed as a housing subdivision.