1736 Magazine - Fall 2018

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Terry Leiden shows Olde Town newspapers he used to publish. sees it, “midtown” is every residential area in Augusta from Lake Olmstead to East Boundary. He believes all areas are poised for reinvestment not seen in decades. “Most midtowns have been abandoned, but they’re all being rediscovered,” Trescott said. “The millennials and boomers are very interested in midtown. This is the easiest neighborhood to sell. If this neighborhood were in any other Southern town, the real estate would be three times as high.” The rooms Trescott showed Streeter near the corner of Third and Tefair are part of the historic Cantelou House, a home built in 1815 by Lewis Cantelou, a Frenchman who fought for America during the Revolutionary War and was an aide-de-camp to President George Washington. Cantelou’s brother, Pierre, later occupied the home. The frontier-style property was as among the few to survive the Great Fire of 1916, a blaze that destroyed many parts of downtown and Olde Town, then known as the Pinched Gut neighborhood. The passage of time was not kind to the Cantelou home, which had been gutted and was on the verge of implosion when Augusta attorney Terry Leiden purchased it and several nearby properties in the 1970s. “That side of the street was vacant,” Leiden recalled. “The cocaine house was at the corner. Directly across the street was the fencing operation. These things operated in broad daylight, so to speak.” 38 u <strong>1736</strong>magazine.com PHOTO BY DAMON CLINE The properties were not unlike many homes in the district that fell into neglect after the city’s well-to-do residents began moving up the “hill” to Summerville. “They had two choices, stay and rebuild or go to the hill,” Leiden said. “Probably about 70 percent of them, with the advent of the automobile, went to the hill.” Leiden’s father-and-son law firm, Leiden & Leiden, still operates at 330 Telfair St. – one of the first Olde Town properties he purchased in 1973. With his wife, Sara, managing his rental properties, Leiden became something of an Olde Town activist, going so far as to publish a monthly neighborhood newspaper, first the Pinch Gut Press and later the Olde Town Crier, for nearly 20 years. Although Leiden’s preservation work is eclipsed in volume by the late Peter S. Knox Jr., a businessman whose construction fortune helped rehabilitate more than 175 homes in Augusta’s urban neighborhoods, the two followed a similar trajectory. Both men started buying in Olde Town in the 1970s and each did the bulk of their restoration work in the 1980s, largely without fanfare from city officials. “There was no focus on There was no focus on Downtown. Terry Leiden downtown,” Leiden recalled. “Not only that, the county had a pretty severe recession going on. The only thing keeping Augusta afloat was Plant Vogtle. And the interest rates we had were like 14½ percent.” Leiden said the sale of his Olde Town properties to investors like Trescott is part of him and Sara’s plan to wind down toward retirement. Trescott said Leiden and others like him helped “save the neighborhood” at a time when it was most vulnerable. He believes the next generation of investors should find a ways to improve the district’s housing stock without pricing out the young people who give the neighborhood its vitality. “Olde Town is at the point where it needs to be re-imagined,” Trescott said. “Let’s find a way not to go full gentrification, but let’s upgrade,” he said. “We don’t need to come in and do bamboo floors, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. If you do that, you’ve got to charge
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Page 1 and 2: 11 Tech-Tonic Shift 14 Residential
Page 3 and 4: PRESIDENT TONY BERNADOS WELCOME MES
Page 5 and 6: was so nice. It is not the same pla
Page 7 and 8: making manufacturing a vital piece
Page 9 and 10: DOWNTOWN AUGUSTA GEORGIA Nearly $1
Page 11 and 12: “Tech”-Tonic Shift Fix downtown
Page 13 and 14: DOWNTOWN AUGUSTA What's Needed? SOM
Page 15 and 16: Downtown Dwellers Cameron Henry and
Page 17 and 18: 1ST COMMU- We play ball. NITY BANK
Page 19 and 20: Downtown Dwellers Ross, Brittany &
Page 21 and 22: ing anybody out of something. We’
Page 23 and 24: ferent when he moved in 10 years ag
Page 25 and 26: PHOTO BY MIKE ADAMS Downtown Dwelle
Page 27 and 28: Augusta. But they don’t even do t
Page 29 and 30: BACK TO BROAD After flirting with r
Page 31 and 32: PHOTO BY MICHAEL HOLAHAN Bryan Halt
Page 33 and 34: REBIRTH OF A COMMUNITY Laney-Walker
Page 35 and 36: Hawthrone Welcherdirector of the Au
Page 37: WHAT’S OLDE IS NEW home [hom] nou
Page 41 and 42: TURNING BACK THE BLOCK Nonprofit ta
Page 43 and 44: Business School for Business AG-000
Page 45 and 46: PHOTO BY MICHAEL HOLAHAN there’s
Page 47 and 48: Ironwood’s best selling point, ho
Page 49 and 50: Paul King Rex Property & Land LLC B
Page 51 and 52: profiles, occupancy, absorption and
Page 53 and 54: steady. The upward trajectory we ar
Page 55 and 56: Riverfront at the Depot At a Glance
Page 57 and 58: protect your data. One Place for Co
Page 59 and 60: ing was one of the largest reasons
Page 61 and 62: PHOTOS BY COOPER CARRY of Augusta,
Page 63 and 64: HITS & MISSES Provincial parking at
Page 65 and 66: Parker Dye, with Jordan Trotter Com
Page 67 and 68: By bringing in new jobs, we’re ge
Page 69 and 70: AT A GLANCE New and future office d
Page 71 and 72: Damon Cline, Editor FINAL WORDS Doe

1736 Magazine - Fall 2018

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