Beautification Edition - 1736 Magazine, Summer 2019

The ‘other’ downtown
North Augusta leaders seeking downtown destination status
OPPOSITE PAGE: Avery Spears-
Mahoney is the executive director
of North Augusta Forward, which
is focused on creating a unique
identity for North Augusta’s
traditional central business
district. [MICHAEL HOLAHAN/
THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE]
By DAMON CLINE
Avery Spears-Mahoney
bristles a little bit
when she hears North
Augusta described as
a “bedroom community.”
“I think North Augusta is more
sophisticated than that, it just doesn’t
present itself as such just yet,” the
executive director of North Augusta
Forward said. “I think we can be
more of a complement to downtown
Augusta, and vice versa, if we can
have our own identity.”
Creating that unique identity
in North Augusta’s traditional
central business district is her
organization’s No. 1 task. The
public-private nonprofit group is
forging ahead on plans to make the
sleepy downtown as vibrant as the
city’s newer Riverside Village district,
where a host of development
has sprung up around the SRP Park
baseball stadium.
The North Augusta native acknowledges
revitalization efforts in the
city’s downtown proper have been on
the backburner in recent years.
“It wasn’t anything intentional on
anyone’s part, it was just by default,”
said Spears-Mahoney, who was hired
to head the organization last year after
serving for five years as director of
the Aiken Downtown Development
Association. “It took a laser focus to
accomplish what they accomplished
over there (at Riverside Village). But
it did leave downtown kind of with its
hands in the air saying, ‘What about
us?’ ”
North Augusta Forward’s renewed
focus on downtown comes after the
city was recently accepted into the
Main Street South Carolina program,
a statewide initiative that arms communities
with technical support and
subject-matter experts to assist in
revitalization efforts.
Earlier this year the program’s staff
unveiled a strategic plan that calls for
everything from increasing downtown’s
connectivity to Riverside Village
and The Greeneway urban trail
system to streetscape improvements
and redevelopment of downtown
buildings and vacant lots.
A top priority is beautifying the
gateway to downtown by redeveloping
the former North Augusta Carpet
Shop on Georgia Avenue, a property
the organization purchased in 2018.
The building, which once housed a
roller-skating rink, and its adjacent
tract of vacant land are envisioned as
1736magazine.com | 39
0818_T_38_AM____.indd 39
7/29/2019 4:22:04 PM