Augusta, Macon or Columbus: Who Will Be The Next Star In Georgia's Crown? (Evans: how much, construction)

[Joe_P]

If Columbus had direct through interstate access it would be better positioned, but seems to be doing alright so far.

So what is the status of I 14?

[AUGnative]

Gotta love these Fall Line City pissing contests.
Here's my breakdown:
Columbus and Augusta: Both have large military bases which help provide a stable economy.

Augusta: Has the largest MSA of the three, but that is boosted by the larger geographic sizes of SC counties. Houston County is somehow omitted from Macon's MSA.

Columbus: Has by far the best riverfront and Riverwalk. The whitwater course downtown is amazing. Augusta had the first Riverwalk but has not maintained it well. Also if the lock and dam us dismantled that could jeopardize the pool that creates the downtown riverfront, turning much it into a mudflat. Augusta does get props for what North Augusta, SC is doing on it's riverfront with SRP park, Riverside Village and Hammond's Ferry.

Columbus: Best current downtown of the three. It's more compact and feels more "filled in". The city has done a good job with Civic prominence in the placement of public buildings. Augusta has failed miserably at this with a hodgepodge placement of public buildings. Just look at the placement of the courthouse as an example. Also Augusta has the most awkward downtown design of the three which is essentially one 1.5 mile long strip called Broad Street which us too wide and not intimate at all. This makes it difficult for downtown Augusta to have a more dense "filled in" feel despite the opening of many new businesses over the past few years. Macon has the most Interesting downtown layout and us the most historic. It has the most potential to be a truly great and unique historic downtown.. if they could integrate it better with a developed riverfront. As it is now, the river is more of an afterthought.

Macon: on transportation Macon has the edge. Only one of the three with dual interstate access. It us also the closest to Atlanta and only one to have direct interstate access to Port of Savannah. I75 is a major national interstate corridor providing a link from the Midwest to South Florida. Columbus merely has a spur and Augusta only has access to east-west 1-20 which is a pretty li g interstate but nit as heavily travelled as I75 or I95.

All 3: Inexpensive cost of living. Probably the biggest strength of all three cities us that they are bargains. Savannah has more sex appeal but you pay for it. Your money simply goes further in the fall line cities.

Columbus: It wins for private sector job growth. It's the only one of the 3 with Fortune 500 HQ. It is strongest for private sector IT. Augusta has a stable economy with an abundance of government jobs. That sector is growing with the Army cyber comna at Fort Gordon.. however, the economy lakes a vibrant private sector. It's more stable but less vibrant.

Verdict. All three are pretty similar. Columbus and Augusta are ahead of Macon in most categories but still Macon has strength in transportation infrastructure and proximity to Atlanta. Augusta has the largest MSa but much that is bland suburban sprawl and is artificially boosted by the massive geographic size of Aiken County, SC. As far as population, both Augusta and Columbus have similar size city populations and both are consolidated governments. Augusta has more suburbs, whether that's a positive depends on your perspective.
So if I had to judge this pissing match I would say it's a draw between Augusta and Columbus.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by AUGnative

Gotta love these Fall Line City pissing contests.

As the OP, I can assure you that I didn't create the thread to incite a 'pissing contest'. It is simply an earnest inquiry as to, relative to other higher-profile Southeastern cities ie Charleston, Savannah, Asheville, Greenville and Chattanooga, which of the three has the goods to next capture the regional or even national spotlight?
It is not my intention to peg any of them as losers.

[JayHey]

Originally Posted by AUGnative

Gotta love these Fall Line City pissing contests.
Here's my breakdown:

Overall that's a pretty good take on things, I suppose because it matches my own so well.


That's an interesting point you're making about the size of SC counties being larger than Georgia's counties and how that could skew Augusta's numbers. I would say that Russell County AL is quite large too though, but it's much less populated than Aiken Co. Take a look at this population density map, Aiken Co.'s population is concentrated in the western corner, so Augusta MSA isn't getting much inflation from geographic size of Aiken Co. alone.

https://statisticalatlas.com/county/...nty/Population

And back on the second page of this post, I ran some numbers and got the most up to date population for each of the Fall Line cities;

Columbus 25m radius pop: 305k
Macon 25m radius pop: 412k
Augusta 25m radius pop: 596k

That's from an estimated center of each city's downtown. I think this is interesting because (like you mentioned above) it includes much of WR and Houston County's population, even though it's a separate MSA, it is close enough for people in WR to daily shop and eat (and eventually live in, as it improves) in Downtown Macon. So, I think Macon's potential is a little hidden at first if you're just looking at its MSA population alone.

I love these kinds of threads, as long as the pissing stays to a minimum and actual level headed discussions are had.

[AUGnative]

The city of Aiken is a sizeable population center of Aiken County, actually moreso than North Augusta, SC on the Western border of the county. If not for Aiken County being as large as it is I don't think the city of Aiken and it's environs would be included in Augusta's msa.

[nortonguy]

Nobody from Augusta responded to this post except for me and the poster who hates Augusta. The majority are from Columbus. People in Augusta don’t view them as competition versus Columbia or Greenville. National developers in America don’t see them as equal also.

Downtown Columbus ‘Plans are for a $12 million Hampton Inn, five-story structure with 88 hotel rooms, an indoor pool, meeting rooms and parking deck.’

DT Augusta built a $25-$30 million eight-story Hyatt House.
https://www.wrdw.com/content/news/Do...505641621.html

$1 million expanded Riverwalk to 13th street.
https://www.wrdw.com/content/news/Co...496001031.html

$30 million Beacon Station,$1000 1/br apts in Laney Walker inner city neighborhood open.
https://www.beaconstationaugusta.com/

$150-200 million mixed-use Augusta Cyberworks in Harrisburg inner city neighborhood under construction
https://capeaugusta.com/

$100 million Riverfront at the Depot mixed-use begins construction this year on the Riverwalk
https://www.retailspecialists.com/riverfront/

Augusta is definitely on par with the growth in SC big 3 versus Macon or Columbus. None of the growth mentioned above includes the Cyber Command or Cyber Institute both in Augusta.

[Columbus1984]

Originally Posted by nortonguy

Nobody from Augusta responded to this post except for me and the poster who hates Augusta. People in Augusta don’t view them as competition versus Columbia or Greenville. National developers in America don’t see them as equal also.

Downtown Columbus ‘Plans are for a $12 million Hampton Inn, five-story structure with 88 hotel rooms, an indoor pool, meeting rooms and parking deck.’

DT Augusta built a $25-$30 million eight-story Hyatt House.
https://www.wrdw.com/content/news/Do...505641621.html

$1 million expanded Riverwalk to 13th street.
https://www.wrdw.com/content/news/Co...496001031.html

$30 million Beacon Station,$1000 1/br apts in Laney Walker inner city neighborhood under construction
https://www.beaconstationaugusta.com/

$150-200 million mixed-use Augusta Cyberworks in Harrisburg inner city neighborhood under construction
https://capeaugusta.com/

$100 million Riverfront at the Depot mixed-use begins construction this year on the Riverwalk
https://www.retailspecialists.com/riverfront/

Augusta is definitely closer to on par with the growth in SC big 3.

You left out tens of millions in construction for downtown Columbus lol.

I work in both of those cities you mentioned along with Augusta. No, Augusta is nowhere near the level of Greenville or Columbia.

Columbus leadership visits cities like Nashville, Charlotte, and Greenville to get urban planning ideas. They have spent a considerable amount of time in Greenville. They just got back from Denver not long ago.

[JayHey]

Norton, you don't have to be so pissy in every comment.

And it's hardly fair to cherry pick one development in Columbus, then list a bunch of stuff going on in Augusta.


There are two other downtown hotels under development besides the one you mentioned.

It's a good thing that Augusta's Riverwalk was recently expanded, but Columbus' has stretched from Fort Benning to north of Bibb City for years now and two new sections were just finished earlier this year.

Beacon Station sounds a lot like The Rapids, which just opened.

Cape Augusta looks really cool and is a great development, Columbus has already redeveloped many of its historic mills into apartments, commercial, office, and event spaces. City Mills redevelopment is the next one on the list and is strikingly similar to the Cape Augusta plan.

And finally the Riverfront at the Depot reminds me of the planned Phase 3 at The Rapids, consisting of a mix of retail and office space.


Sure, you're right Augusta is closer in population to the 3 large metros in SC, that's just basic arithmetic.

Like it's been mentioned a few times in this thread, Augusta (600k) is twice the size of Columbus (300k), so yeah we are in a different weight class, so no need to keep punching down at us. Augusta is doing good, so's Columbus. Those two facts aren't mutually exclusive.

[nortonguy]

Originally Posted by Columbus1984

You left out tens of millions in construction for downtown Columbus lol.

I work in both of those cities you mentioned along with Augusta. No, Augusta is nowhere near the level of Greenville or Columbia.

Columbus leadership visits cities like Nashville, Charlotte, and Greenville to get urban planning ideas. They have spent a considerable amount of time in Greenville. They just got back from Denver not long ago.

Lol from the guy who said the energy in DT Columbus was much higher than DT Augusta?

We both know that’s not even close to fact.

[Columbus1984]

Auburn and Opelika can’t be left out either. It’s only 20 miles or so from downtown Columbus to downtown Opelika. Lagrange isn't much further as well. Our region is much larger than the 300k mentioned.