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An "escape" room may be coming to Downtown Augusta.
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Atlanta-based Mastermind Escape Games is developing its newest entertainment center in a 4,000-square-foot former medical office building at 3940 Washington Road, just past the Columbia Road intersection where Martinez starts morphing into Evans.
One might be on its way to downtown Augusta. Last week Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Margaret Woodard told authority board members that an escape room company was one of two “large prospects” (the other being a local realty company) she was working with on a downtown location.
Picture being “locked” in a room you have to escape from using your wits and Scooby Doo-like clues that you and your team have to decipher before time runs out. Only about one in five teams solves the puzzle.
“Our diverse games range from a bank heist to a deadly viral outbreak, and from a mysterious kidnapping of your uncle to a group of superheroes trying to save a city,” the company’s website says.
The rooms are booked for everything from birthday parties and family reunions to corporate team-building events.
In case you haven’t been to one of these places, they’re loads of fun. The family unit and I did one in Atlanta last year. We died.
But we died smiling.
On Friday, I accompanied a friend to the Riverwalk so he could catch the "Pokeemon." As we walked, I really enjoyed it, seeing the whole setup for Unisys (First time I've actually seen it--It was funny because my friend still remembers the Mall at Port Royal), all of the people at the restaurants along the walk, the children playing in the fountain near 9th, the surprising bit of traffic. I was impressed. And this was all happening on a drizzling evening, so WOW! I was really confused with the game my friend was playing, but we met a lot of people who were playing it too, so I see this 'Pokeemon" craze as potential for Downtown. I was so happy with all I saw, although I wish they would extend the common like they said they would. That would be incredible!
There are always no less than 20 people at the Riverwalk at night even around 1-2am playing Pokemon. On a Friday or Saturday night there are at least 50 or 60, plus all the people walking around all downtown now playing the game. The foot traffic has been INCREDIBLE for downtown businesses.
It's the start of a new school year for Augusta University Freshman, Anthony Mounzer. After just a week of classes, he's beginning to explore the city.
"I usually go maybe on the weekends. There's a ton of cool places to eat," said Mounzer.
He's not the only one.
"There's a few restaurants down there that I love, like 1102 and Cotton Patch, so I will go downtown to get a good bite to eat," said AU Senior, Sherrica Christian.
Just when the college students come back, downtown starts to pick up.
"Well, I can definitely say that first week when school started, we had a lot of people in here," said Chastity Hamilton, a bartender at the Hive downtown.
Not everyone is feeling the college crush, at least not yet. Kim Sharpton owns a bar downtown called Flo.
"I haven't seen more people come in just yet. I think there's a little bit of time for them to acclimate and get adjusted to school life again," said Sharpton.
He said downtown is changing right along with Augusta University.
"Even for someone who might've been at the school last year, downtown has changed a lot," said Sharpton.
That means, there's more even for returning college students to see. As for hard numbers, it's still too soon to say."
It's hard for us to trace whether or not there's an upswing in activity when the college kids come in because they're still rediscovering downtown as well." said Sharpton.
That includes the 700 students now calling the AU Medical campus home for the first time.
"We'll see them just soon enough, I'm sure," said Sharpton.
Some downtown news tidbits in the scuttlebiz section of the Augusta Chronicle...
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CHEW ON THIS: College kids seem to like sandwich shops like Jimmy John’s and Tex-Mex bistros like Barberito’s. That’s why franchisees from both chains are looking to locate in downtown’s medical district, home to a growing number of Augusta University students and hospital employees.
But those restaurants aren’t the only ones actively looking for a footprint in the city’s urban core. The breakfast-centric IHOP and Columbia-based fast-casual chain Newk’s Eatery have also put out feelers in the downtown area. My money is on Jimmy John’s opening first.
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THIS ‘COULD’ BE EXCITING … : The biggest real estate deal on Broad Street in quite a while went down earlier this month when the former Capitol City Bank & Trust Co. branch at 1268 Broad St. was acquired for $700,000 by a limited liability company whose registered agent is local attorney Bernard Dunstan Jr.
Messages I left for him at the law offices of Dunstan, Cleary & West were not returned. So whatever might be in store for that fairly sizeable chunk of downtown dirt – it’s nearly a full acre – is unknown at the moment. To me, at least.
Time will also tell what happens at 1289 Broad St., a property that is diagonally across the street from the former bank branch and is reportedly under contract.
You might remember the property and its nondescript 18,000-square-foot building as the former Planned Parenthood Augusta clinic, which went out of business earlier this year.
The first phase of this community will offer 80 apartment homes designed exclusively for active adults, ages 55 and older. The community will feature both one- and two-bedroom apartment homes and will offer a blend of both market rate and affordable programs in partnership with the Augusta Housing Authority.
Phase two is scheduled to include 90 units with one, two and three bedroom apartments for low-income families.
In total, the plan includes approximately 320 apartments in a gated community developed and constructed with low-income tax credits allocated by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.
The new complex is planned to resemble the Walton Oaks apartments on Sand Bar Ferry Road in East Augusta.
Walton Oaks has definitely changed the way some residents view affordable apartment communities in Georgia.
Walton Oaks is a distinctive neighborhood that provides a variety of amenities like a private fitness center, neighborhood grills, a legacy center with complimentary Wi-Fi, beautifully landscaped gazeboes, a lending library, a kid-friendly adventure park, planned community activities, community laundry facilities and a controlled access community with a gate.
This is no longer public housing; this is proper living for all people.
It’s a second chance for a former neighborhood that saw this city at its worst.
The new Walton Green community at the former Cherry Tree Crossing location is expected to be ready for new tenants by the fall of 2017.
If done right, it will be a welcomed addition to the downtown area.
PC Magazine gave a nice write up on Augusta Cyber:
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The United States Army is ramping up recruitment of geeks as it builds out a massive US Army Cyber Command in Augusta, Georgia, a move that could reportedly bring up to 5,000 new workers to the region, both military and civilian.
On the Internet, the enemy has no intention of following the Rules of Engagement or reading the manual, so to speak. So the Department of Defense has been stealthily building something so advanced, internally and across all joint forces (Army, Navy and Marines), that it can be proactive and reactive in dealing with modern warfare.
Welcome to the future of non-kinetic combat—in cyberspace.
PCMag went to Augusta, Georgia, to attend TechNet Augusta and find out more about US Army Cyber Command, which will be based in the city from 2018. The overarching USCYBERCOM has its own HQ in Fort Meade, Maryland.
Augusta is already home to the Army Signal Corp and its Cyber Center of Excellence at US Army Base Fort Gordon. Considering the Signal Corp is responsible for all information systems and global networks, it's essentially where you'll find the geeks of the military, so the location makes sense.
Augusta, Georgia
At TechNet, top ranking officers from the US Army were joined by C-Suite IT and defense contract executives for a look at the latest gear, intelligence sharing, and talent scouting.
Panel discussions included everything from the challenges of critical infrastructure protection and defensive cyber operations maneuver baselines to securing your warfighting platform, managing LAN devices in the cloud, and deceiving hackers with honey hashes (aka, foiling authentication attempts to grab passwords and break into networks).
The exhibition hall had all the big name IT giants, including Unisys, HP, Cisco, and IBM. But that is where the similarities to a regular tech gathering ended. Most attendees were in fatigues and a few were in full military dress with medals and spit-and-polished shoes.
Networking areas mingled between security intelligence briefing desks and display booths showcasing things like ultra rugged Getac X500 briefcase-sized battlefield tested mobile server units and an NSA Certified Type 1 Harris RF Falcon III communications tactical radio unit, or "Command Post in a Ruck."
Bizarrely, along with the usual booth bait of branded ballpoint pens and Post-IT note giveaways, were jars of lollipops and tubs of unbuttered popcorn. They sat a little oddly amongst the rugged battle-tested equipment, but we digress.
At the sit-down lunch in the chandeliered ballroom, PCMag joined a table of soldiers who had done five tours of duty in Iraq each. Sadly they weren't empowered to talk to the press, so we can't quote anything that was said. But we can confirm the trenchant humor of the military is of an excellent standard (and it did feel like having a walk-on role in M*A*S*H).
The keynote speech was given by Major General Crawford, 14th Commander of the US Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM). He laid out the "New Strategic Realities" for the army to be in "readiness" at both the IOC (Initial Operational Capability) and FOC (Final Operational Capability). These include irregular warfare, sustain SWA (South West Asia) long-term and Army Posture in Europe. He also highlighted problems with privacy versus security as well as keeping current with the exponential growth in software coupled with velocity of instability in global conflict regions.
Unisys Stealth
Though top brass was a bit press shy, most of the top defense contractors are ex-military or formerly part of the intelligence community themselves, and they are happy to talk.
PCMag sat down with two executives from Unisys: Jennifer L. Napper, Group Vice President, Department of Defense and Intelligence Group and Tom Patterson, Chief Trust Officer.
Napper reached the rank of Major General in the US Army and retired after 30 years of distinguished service. She's no stranger to large scale complex IT installations, as she was responsible for engineering, operating, and securing global IT and communications networks for the Army. Her role now is to securing and delivering Unisys federal contracts to DOD and other US government entities.
Unisys StealthPatterson was embedded in the Middle East for many years with the intelligence community during the Reagan administration, and has a long history in the global security business with stints at IBM, KPMG, and Deloitte. He even wrote the book on it: Mapping Security, which was endorsed by no less than Dr. Vint Cerf and former DARPA research chief, Dr. Craig Fields.
To meet demand from the US Army Cyber Command, Napper and Patterson were at TechNet Augusta to scout talent for potential recruits for Unisys Federal as well as introduce their latest software product offering, Unisys Stealth.
"This particular TechNet is focused in on how the Army is going to support its war fighters with capabilities, particularly in the IT and cyber arena," Napper told PCMag. "And Unisys has a great long history of providing these to not only the DOD and gederal government, but our commercial partners too."
A theme throughout some of the panel discussions was how the US Army Cyber Command can scale up swiftly, especially as the US has been involved in conflict on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan for many years now; a drain on resources and planning efforts. Napper feels, as one might expect, this is why companies like Unisys can bring real value to the military.
"We have some capabilities that have been refined in our commercial world that, we believe, the Department of Defense now needs," she pointed out. "Essentially we want to help the DOD leap over the generation of tech they missed due to 15 fifteen years of being at war. Software-defined networks, security that's built in from the beginning, for example."
So is the model a purely managed services one? That would help the Army Cyber Command scale up faster than building everything in-house and would certainly be Unisys's preferred route, confirmed Patterson:
"Everything we've learned from our commercial partners about top-level, world-class security across networks, particularly our banks and energy companies, means huge efficiencies for the managed services route, if that's the way they want to go. At the same time, there's stuff that they need to do onsite, whether that's here in Augusta at Fort Gordon, or deployed on a base somewhere. But the rest can be handled directly, via the cloud."
Is that its own Unisys cloud? It's rumored that most high level IP-based traffic isn't going anywhere near the public Internet these days.
"It can be our cloud," confirmed Patterson. "But we work well with everyone, including the Amazon Web Services cloud, Microsoft, and Salesforce. In fact, we're the only security company that's brought their micro-segmentation product - Unisys Stealth - to both the AWS and Microsoft Cloud and has gone through the NSA CSfC certification to be elected to be used for classified data. So it makes it possible for our clients to use the public cloud for efficiencies but still hold their own keys."
Unisys Stealth includes the latest in behavioral biometrics, assigning a risk score to those seeking to enter a client's network, based on a vast number of contributing factors. The days of passwords, or even iris scanning and fingerprints are over. It's all a lot more complicated and Augusta is where much of that advanced security technology is being built out.
Unisys has 225 staffers working in downtown Augusta already, and has committed to increasing that number to 700 within two years. But, as Patterson said, it's not just a job, it has to be something greater.
"What gets me out of bed in the morning? It's more than the paycheck, more than the quarterly report; don't tell my boss. We are significantly upgrading the defensive capabilities of all our clients, including those in the critical energy, transportation, and military sectors, with advanced technology and efficiencies. Very sophisticated bad guys are targeting critical infrastructure and we're on the cutting edge of defending that," he said.
Which is why military personnel about to retire out of the Army are ideal—they already get the concept of offense and defense—all they need is the commercial training, which Unisys University provides, locally, onsite.
"Military vets are well-trained professionals," confirmed Napper. "And there is a real need to have a mission, which is why this sort of work we do appeals to those of us with military backgrounds."
But Unisys is also seeking talented civilian software programmers and security experts—as long as they can pass the background checks, get top-level security (which includes a counterintelligence and full-scope polygraph) clearance.
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There will be plenty of expansion in other forms of employment, too, as an emerging cyber workforce will require all the usual digi-culture-comforts and amenities. Downtown Augusta already boasts an excellent bookstore, groovy coffeeshop (with a Tim Curry Latte and a sandwich named after Jerry Garcia) and several vinyl record shops. All it needs now is a Frys Electronics, a decent arts cinema and, of course, food trucks.
"People love the quality of life down here," agreed Patterson. "We really want to make Augusta a destination workplace for cyber people."
So if you fancy a career in the future US Army Command (if you're ready for active service) or a role in any of the major contractors in town, get ready for the heat, humidity, and hard work down in Augusta, Georgia, the newest cousin to Silicon Valley. Any suggestions for a new name? How about Silicon Secret?
The repairs are items compiled by Recreation Director Glenn Parker during a June walk-through with the Augusta Commission, the mayor and city staff. They range from removing pigeon droppings and painting a fence to making amphitheater seats compatible with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The items are in addition to about $1 million in Downtown Development Au*thor*ity improvements which include large lighted arches at the Eighth Street and James Brown Boulevard levee breaches, upper-level shade structures, landscaping, lighting and furniture on the east end and a path on the west end.
The city also is funding construction of a sheriff’s substation at the Port Royal building on the riverwalk and considering installing security cameras for $143,000 after gunfire broke out July 4.
Commissioner Marion Wil*liams said he thought the June tour was to ascertain “low-hanging fruit” and was surprised few of the list’s small repairs had been made over the past four months.
“People do what they want to when they want,” he said.Other items such as the ADA seating, while needed, weren’t placed on the list during the tour, he said. City Administrator Janice Allen Jackson said Parker will present cost estimates for the individual items during today’s Public Services Committee meeting.
Jackson said she hopes the commission will “prioritize for us what the most important items are.”
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