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AN EXAMPLE OF the look Grove**town is trying to achieve can be found at the Cir*cle K gas station at Wrights*boro Road and Hori*zon South Parkway, which more closely resembles a single-family home than a convenience store.
Under the new code, the company had to ditch its signature red and yellow exterior in favor of more earthy tones. The white store front was swapped out for a brick facade with windows – some of them fake – and shutters. It also features a pitched roof instead of the standard flattop.
“I say it’s going to be the best-looking Circle K in the area,” Neal said with a laugh.
Mark Herbert, the owner of Herbert Homes Inc. and a former president of the Buil*ders Association of Metro Au*gus*ta, said most major cities are doing or have done what Grovetown intends to do with its urban core.
“From my standpoint, it appears that’s what the younger crowd really likes,” said Herbert, who is developing residential property in the city. “They like that uniformity, and in some instances you can get the cost down to where (building) is more affordable.”
THE NEW CODE has also given developers a greater degree of flexibility with regard to changing lot sizes and functions, which he says amount to more cost savings that can be passed on to home buyers.
Coffee Geek owner David Bowers, who is rehabbing an auto shop along Robinson Ave*nue to be the permanent site of his business, said he’s a fan of the urban development plan and the codes that come with it because “Grovetown deserves a downtown.”
That being said, he thinks the vision isn’t entirely practical.
“I actually really like the concept of what they want the downtown to be, but I think because of their vision, it’s going to stifle small business owners” because of the obstacles created by the new code and lack of incentives, he said.
The structure he and his partner are renovating doesn’t have to fit the rest of the downtown image because it was built prior to the code, but Bowers said he still wanted it to should other developments spring up near his.
Textron Specialized Vehicles Inc. said Monday it has acquired a Wisconsin-based manufacturer of equipment used to de-ice airplanes.
The Augusta-based vehicle maker said it will fold Premier Engineering & Manufacturing Inc. of Marinette, Wis., into its TUG Technologies Corp. subsidiary, which produces ground support equipment under the TUG and Douglas Equipment brands.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Kevin Holleran, president and CEO of Textron Specialized Vehicles, said in a statement Monday that Premier’s line of de-icers will complement the company’s baggage and cargo tractors, belt loaders, mobile HVAC units and aircraft pushbacks.
“Premier’s line of de-icers expands our already robust (ground support equipment) product offerings, and allows us to offer our customers in the aviation industry a more complete line of proven, reliable and versatile products from leading brands in the GSE sector,” Holleran said.
The company said Premier founder Jerry Derusha will continue to serve as operations director and that Premier’s 50 employees will continue operating its Marinette production facility.
Premier was founded in 1991 in Marquette, Mich., but relocated to Marinette the following year, according to the company’s Web site. The company said more than 1,000 of its vehicles are in service in 15 countries.
Derusha said in the Textron Specialized Vehicles-issued statement that he was honored to join the company because of its “long heritage and legacy of leadership in aviation.”
“This acquisition provides Premier’s business with additional resources and expertise to expand our product offerings, grow our business worldwide and ultimately better support our customers,” he said.
Textron Specialized Vehicles, a unit of Providence, R.I.-based Textron Inc., produces golf cars, utility vehicles and personnel transporters under the E-Z-GO, Cushman, Bad Boy, TUG and Douglas brands.
Tractor Supply Company opened its new store in North Augusta recently. The new 31,000 sq. ft. store is located in Edgewood Square Shopping Center on Edgefield Road, which is anchored by Bi-Lo.
Tractor Supply Company (TSC) carries farm and ranch equipment and supplies, animal care products, lawn and garden supplies and clothing. TSC believes the North Augusta market is attractive because of the part-time and hobby farmers and horse owners in the area.
The new TSC store has more than a dozen employees.
TSC also has stores on Bobby Jones Expressway in Augusta and Whiskey Road in Aiken.
Residential construction is down in Columbia County, while commercial permits are up...
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Through the end of April, the county has issued 384 permits for new residential construction, 42 fewer than the first four months of 2015. At the same time, the county saw a 310 percent increase in permits for new commercial developments from 10 to 41.
Columbia County Planning Director Andrew Strickland attributed the rise in commercial permits to cyber-related businesses wanting to be closer to Fort Gordon and the Army Cyber Command slated to be at the base by 2019. He said the residential numbers will rebound.
They always do, he said.
“Anytime commercial development gets on the ground, it’s following rooftops,” Strickland said, alluding to previous residential growth. “We’ve seen so much residential growth over the years that it takes commercial a little while to catch up.
“I think that’s what we’re seeing now; the residential is slowing down but the commercial is catching up to the homes that have been there for a little while.”
Much of that commercial growth is along Gateway Boulevard, where in recent years a Wal-Mart, Applebee’s and other developments have come. Residential development has been more concentrated in the William Few Parkway area, such as homes in Riverwood Plantation, Magnolia Valley Plantation, Whispering Pines and PineArm Bluff subdivisions.
Owners of North Augusta Plaza plan to rebuild the 110,000-square-foot space occupied by Kmart into retail space for four new stores, including PetSmart and Ross Dress for Less, as shown here in this artist's rendering.
PetSmart and Ross Dress for Less will be among the new retailers at North Augusta Plaza later this year after a major renovation project that commences when anchor tenant Kmart moves out at the end of the month.
North Augusta Plaza owner Slate Asset Management LP said the pet store and the discount department chain will join Burkes Outlet and Rack Room Shoes as new tenants at the Martintown Road shopping center after construction concludes next fall.
Existing tenants Publix, Hamrick’s and Hibbett Sports will remain open through the center’s renovation, which will start in June and finish in May 2017.
“We believe that this tenant lineup will continue to drive traffic to this Publix-anchored center and will solidify North Augusta Plaza as a prominent shopping destination in the Central Savannah River Area,” Slate Vice President Tyler Pridham said in a statement Monday.
The new retailers would open for business in about September 2017, he said.
Toronto-based Slate Asset Management has been planning the renovation for months. Last year, it received city approval to replace the 110,000-square-foot Kmart store with space for four new retailers. Of the four retailers it announced this week, only Burkes Outlet wasn’t listed on the renderings the company submitted to planning officials.
Sears Holding Corp., Kmart’s owner, confirmed in February that it would close the North Augusta store, which it had operated since 1993. Store employees told The Augusta Chronicle the retailer’s final day of operation would be May 22, leaving the discount retailer’s Augusta store on Gordon Highway as its sole remaining store in the metro area.
Slate said Augusta-based Southeastern Development Associates would handle leasing of the North Augusta Plaza property.
None of the four future tenants currently have stores in North Augusta.
Phoenix-based PetSmart Inc., America’s largest pet supply store, operates stores in Augusta and Aiken.
Ross Stores Inc., of Dublin, Calif., has three Ross Dress for Less stores in Augusta, Evans and Aiken.
Discount department store Burkes Outlet, formerly known as Bealls, sells discount apparel, housewares and shoes. It has stores in Augusta and Aiken.
Charlotte, N.C.-based Rack Room Shoes is one of the largest privately owned footwear retailers in the world. It has stores in Augusta, Evans and Aiken
Location: Augusta, GA ''The fastest rising city in the southeast''
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House approves construction projects for Fort Gordon | The Augusta Chronicle The U.S. House passed a defense authorization bill Tuesday that includes nearly $155 million for four projects at Fort Gordon. Three of the projects are related to the military post’s heightened role as the Army’s center of cybersecurity, and the fourth is for a medical clinic to serve the added personnel.
The end of Gateway Boulevard right now is heavily wooded and quiet.
But if Doctors Hospital of Augusta loses its final appeals of a state license to build a hospital in Columbia County, the area in a few years will be the site of AU Medical Center’s 100-bed community hospital. It will add to a growing legion of health care providers flocking to this area off Interstate 20 in what is one of the fastest growing parts of one of the state’s fastest growing counties.
“It will change the footprint of the county,” said Shawn Vincent, interim Chief Operating Officer for AUMC.
Doctors has sued the Georgia Department of Community Health over its use of an exception to its normal need standards to grant a certificate of need to build a hospital in Columbia County if the county agrees to pay 20 percent of the cost. A Fulton County Superior Court Judge ruled against Doctors in April but Doctors has another appeal pending before the Court of Appeals of Georgia.
Oral arguments in that appeal are scheduled for July.
Doctors has argued the state does not have the
authority to create the exceptions and grant a CON for a hospital in the county, the state’s largest without one. Vincent hopes that if the state prevails, any further appeals would be exhausted by year’s end and allow AUMC to begin work immediately on a hospital and also proceed simultaneously with a medical office complex that would be completed well before the hospital, which could take 30-35 months to build.
But that Gateway has already seen a number of medical services spring up in the past few years, in part to respond to the tremendous growth in the area. While Columbia County grew by 16 percent between 2010 and 2015 to more than 141,000, the Grovetown area grew by 28.5 percent during that same period to more than 34,000, according to figures from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Development Authority of Columbia County.
“You’re going to continue to see quality growth going forward in the community. And it is going to be relatively rapid growth,” said Robbie Bennett, executive director of the development authority.
Grovetown has had significant industry in the area for decades, including John Deere and GIW Minerals, the former Georgia Iron Works, Bennett said. But what is fueling the most recent growth is housing, and the retail stores that have followed. And soon after has come the medical services, Bennett said.
“Population density and population growth and proximity to workers definitely is a driving factor for a medical community,” he said.
The Center for Primary Care opened a medical office there a few years ago and University Hospital soon followed with medical offices and a Prompt Care clinic together in one building.
“There’s a lot of new rooftops” in the area, University CEO Jim Davis said. “In our business, we look at rooftops. And they are growing rapidly in Columbia County.”
In fact, “the demographics are actually better than what we originally looked at three years ago when this process started because the growth has occurred a little bit faster than what everybody had anticipated in this area,” Vincent said.
And that growth could actually accelerate with what is happening at Fort Gordon, he said.
“We’ll see more as the (U.S. Army) Cyber Command moves here over the next 18-24 months,” Vincent said.
Being able to reach out into that community is what spurred Serenity Behavioral Health Systems to approach Center for Primary Care about opening a clinic on its second floor in March, said Chuck Williamson, CEO of Serenity. That location is currently seeing patients twice a week but is already booked and officials are looking to add a third day, he said.
“Just based on the growth we’ve seen already we’re confident that it’s going to pay for itself in no time and it is just going to be a very busy clinic,” Williamson said.
All of those providers basically across or down the street from each other could set up an unusual level of competition, University officials said. University’s aim is to build up a primary care network with its University Primary Care office there as well as the Prompt Care, Davis said.
“Depending upon what generation you are, some people want a relationship with a doctor, some people just want care,” he said.
AUMC’s concept for the medical park and for its hospital is also to rely on community physicians as opposed to exporting its faculty there, Vincent said.
“Our primary care network is somewhat limited,” he said. “Therefore we have to partner with others that are in the community. We currently do partner with most of the large primary care groups in town as well as the smaller ones.”
With patients paying more and more of their health care out of pocket, they might be more likely to shop for health care as they would for other things, Davis said.
“So they are going to be looking for high quality and service but they are also going to be very concerned about how much they are paying out of their own pocket for their care,” Davis said. “We believe we offer very competitive prices for what we serve. We’re ready for the retail revolution.”
Even if or when a hospital opens down the street, “we welcome competition,” said Dr. Bozeman Sherwood, medical director for University Prompt Care. “We think that’s what people want, what they deserve is competition. And we think we have the best.”
But down the street, looking at what is still a heavily wooded 80 acres, Vincent sees more than a future hospital. It will also be a Level II trauma center that could shave minutes off a response that would normally go downtown.
And he sees a true “health and wellness campus” that would not just include medical services but other providers and could potentially tie in to other community services.
“If you look at what the needs are in the community, to meet the needs, we really have to work with one another, complement one another to provide the care the community requires,” Vincent said. “In many ways we already do that. I would actually expect to see more collaboration."
That’s no longer the reality at many apartment complexes, however, and it’s certainly not the case at one of the market’s newest and most upscale multifamily communities – Grand Oaks at Crane Creek.
The 300-unit “Class A” apartment complex under development in west Augusta at the intersection of Walton Way Extension and Interstate 20 has features more commonly found in new single-family homes, including engineered-wood flooring, granite countertops, walk-in showers and stainless steel appliances.
Grand Oaks is no less posh on the outside, where its “contemporary craftsman” architecture uses tumbled brick and rough-hewn cedar brackets to evoke the feel of a resort lodge. A resort experience is what some residents
might feel when lounging in a poolside cabana or shooting billiards in the Wi-fi-equipped resident lounge next to a well-equipped fitness/wellness room.
The amenities – including Grand Oaks’ proximity to major transportation corridors – don’t come cheap; rents range from $999 for an 841-square-foot one-bedroom up to $1,999 for a 1,818-square-foot two-bedroom carriage unit that has its own garage.
In a market known for low-cost housing – the median rent for a metro Augusta two-bedroom apartment is a little above $700, about $400 lower than the national average, according to New York-based real estate researcher REIS Inc. – the luxury rates are largely unprecedented.
But the market appears more than willing to bear it; Grand Oaks’ developer, Augusta-based Southeastern Development Associates, expects full occupancy before year’s end.
The community already has signed 146 leases since the sales office opened in January. And of the 124 units ready for move-in, 92 are already occupied.
“We’re basically leasing a unit a day,” said John Lee Jr., the company’s senior vice president.
Plamondon Hospitality Partners has appointed Susanne Crosby as general manager of the under-construction Home2 Suites by Hilton in Grovetown. The hotel is owned by Grovetown Hospitality Associates, LLC and will be open late summer.
As general manager, Crosby will be in charge of directing all aspects of hotel operations, including guest services and satisfaction, hotel administration and overseeing marketing efforts.
“Susanne has a dedicated and impressive record in hotel management and will be a valuable asset to the property and to the team,” said Michael Henningsen, Director of Hotel Operations for Plamondon Hospitality Partners.
Prior to joining Home2 Suites Grovetown Augusta Area, Crosby was employed at an area hotel managed by PMG, and also worked for Army Community Services. Crosby completed her hospitality training in Traben-Trarbach, Germany, and is an active member of AUSA at Fort Gordon.
When completed, the new Home2 Suites in Grovetown will all suite accommodations featuring fully-equipped kitchens and modular furniture allowing for guests to personalize their room. The hotel also features easy access to technology with complimentary internet, community spaces and trademark Home2 Suites amenities such Spin2 Cycle, a combined laundry and fitness area, Home2 MKT for grab-and-go items, and the Inspired Table, a complimentary breakfast that includes more than 400 potential combinations.
It also features an outdoor saline pool and outdoor grills for guests’ use. Nearly all Home2 Suites properties are pet-friendly.
Martinez-based Duckworth De*velop*ment LLC late last month broke ground on a 12,000-square-foot office for Savannah River Der*ma*tology, a private practice currently based at University Hospital’s Evans campus on North Belair Road.
Jim Cely, Duckworth’s co-owner and chief operating officer, said the practice is the first tenant to commit to the professional-office zoned property on the 500 block of Furys Ferry, across the street from the Oakbrook neighborhood and just west of the gated entrance to West Lake.
Cely and his partner, CEO Patrick Duckworth, acquired the property in mid-April with the intent of developing a new office for the dermatology practice, which is headed by their wives, Dr. Anna Kay Duckworth and Dr. Sarah Cely.
The new medical office building will include 2,500 square feet of leasable space and is expected to be completed by January, Cely said.
The balance of the property could be sold off piecemeal or developed for tenants seeking a long-term lease, he said.
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