Fall 2020 - 1736 Magazine

FALL 2020 

WATERWAYS EDITION 

Facing 

REALITY 

Blighted buildings, 

vandalism make 

downtown Augusta 

appear less safe 

than it is 

ISSUE 3 | SPRING 2019 

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THE 

REVITALIZATI 

of DOWNTOWN AUGUSTA

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constrain developers from 

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A PRODUCT OF 

PRESIDENT 

TONY BERNADOS 

EDITOR 

DAMON CLINE 

DESIGNER 

GANNETT DESIGN CENTER, AUSTIN 

MAILING ADDRESS: 

725 BROAD STREET, AUGUSTA, GA 30901 

TELEPHONE: 

706.724.0851 

EDITORIAL: 

DAMON CLINE 706.823.3352 

DCLINE@AUGUSTACHRONICLE.COM 

ADVERTISING: 

706.821.6602 

CONTENTS 

4 

PICTURE THIS 

6 

OUR VIEW 

10 

CURB APPEAL 

12 

MEET JORDAN JOHNSON 

22 

FIRST BAPTIST RENOVATION 

30 

COVER STORY: 

PERCEPTION IS REALITY 

12 

60 

56 

JAMES BROWN ARENA 

60 

MUSEUM ROW 

67 

GRADING DOWNTOWN 

68 

BRIEFING 

70 

FINAL WORDS 

COVER IMAGE BY: 

MICHAEL HOLAHAN 

©Gannett Co., Inc. All rights reserved. No part of 

this publication and/or website may be reproduced, 

stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form 

without prior written permission of the Publisher. 

Permission is only deemed valid if approval is in writing. 

1736 Magazine and Gannett Co., Inc. buy all rights to 

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to in writing. While every effort has been made to ensure 

that information is correct at the time of going to print, 

Gannett cannot be held responsible for the outcome 

of any action or decision based on the information 

contained in this publication. 

[FILE/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE] 

IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF 1736 

Many downtown businesses left 

the central business district in the 

1970s, but a handful of proprietorships 

have stayed through the 

good times and the bad. Take a 

new look at some of downtown’s 

oldest companies. 

1736magazine.com | 3

PICTURE THIS 

4 | 1736magazine.com

A temporary walkway for construction workers is 

set up at downtown Augusta’s Fifth Street Bridge, 

which is being renovated into a pedestrian-only 

bridge that will feature bike trails, benches and 

other amenities for visitors to Riverwalk Augusta. 

[MICHAEL HOLAHAN/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE] 


OUR VIEW 

KEEPING UP 

APPEARANCES 

Those who can’t maintain downtown 

properties shouldn’t own them 

Story by DAMON CLINE 

Photos by MICHAEL HOLAHAN 

Time seems to be proving that the biggest 

barrier to downtown Augusta’s 

revitalization is the circular reasoning 

spinning in the minds of derelict 

property owners. 

Speak with the owner of a dilapidated, uninhabitable 

or perpetually vacant downtown building 

and you’ll often hear something that sounds like 

this: “I can’t afford to invest in this building until I 

have a tenant.” 

The flip-side to that logic, of course, is that 

prospective tenants almost never show interest 

in a run-down building whose owners won’t lift a 

finger to fix it or sell it for a reasonable price. 

Point out that paradox and you’re likely to hear 

a retort along the lines of: “Augusta’s rents just 

aren’t high enough yet to justify a renovation.” 

Although there is some truth to that reply – 

Augusta’s residential and commercial rents are 

low when compared to many Southeastern peers 

– it is somewhat disingenuous. 

The fact of the matter is Augusta rents will 

never be “high enough” to justify a capital investment 

as long as downtown property owners sit on 

the sidelines, waiting for someone or some thing 

to create an opportunity that magically adds value 

to their long-neglected land and buildings. 

This inaction – this prevalent pusillanimity 

ABOVE: Flowers in bloom on a bright fall day as the vacant and decaying Lamar and Marion buildings, 

right, loom in the distance. Both are among downtown Augusta’s most prominent blighted structures. 


– may very well be the prime reason 

Augusta’s central business district is 

chock full of vacant spaces. 

With a handful of notable exceptions 

in recent years, this pervasive halfhearted 

attitude among private-sector 

stakeholders has defined Augusta’s 

central business district since it was 

hollowed out in the 1970s by the opening 

of suburban shopping malls. 

The wait-and-see phenomenon 

isn’t unique to downtown Augusta, 

according to Ed McMahon, the Urban 

Land Institute’s Charles E. Fraser 

Chair on Sustainable Development and 

Environmental Policy. 

“I’ve heard this in countless communities 

across the country,” said 

McMahon, a native of Birmingham, 

Ala. “Real estate investors and developers 

are definitely risk-averse. They 

always like to tell me the pioneer is the 

person with the arrows in their back. 

They’re always waiting for somebody 

else to prove that investing in a 

downtown building will actually make 

sense.” 

To illustrate his point, the 

Washington, D.C.-based scholar often 

recounts the story of Rick Hauser, a 

young architect who wanted to set 

up an office in his wife’s hometown 

of Perry, N.Y., a small hamlet nestled 

between Buffalo and Rochester. 

In 2001, Hauser approached numerous 

building owners about renting 

space to house his firm, but he was 

repeatedly turned down by disinterested 

property owners. 

“He told me he went to the owner of 

the nicest building in downtown and 

said, ‘I’d like to lease some space from 

you,’ and the guy said to him, ‘Well, 

no, I can’t lease you any space because 

I’d have to fix my roof,’ ” McMahon 

said, recalling a conversation he had 

with Hauser while speaking at Cornell 

University. 

“So he went to another guy and 

was told, ‘No, I’d have to rewire the 

building,’ ” McMahon said. “These 

were people who didn’t understand 

the difference between spending and 

investing.” 

McMahon, who is also chairman 

of the National Main Street Center 

board of directors, said Hauser then 

decided to buy a building and renovate 

The old Perry’s salon building, left, and the former WAGT building, right, on Broad Street in 

downtown Augusta are among several dilapidated structures in the central business district. 

it himself. So the architect visited the 

town’s bankers to get a loan. 

“And then the banks told him there 

was no market for downtown buildings, 

which, of course, they believed because 

nobody had bought a building there in 

the last 20 or so years,” McMahon said. 

Hauser eventually formed a corporate 

entity to self-finance a purchase. 

He raised money by selling shares in the 

company to friends, family members 

and local construction companies, 

which offered in-kind plumbing and 

electrical services in exchange for 

a stake in his fledgling real estate 

venture. 

Hauser eventually got his downtown 

building – a two-story storefront on 

main street. He opened his office on the 

ground floor and converted the second 

story into two loft apartments, both of 

which were leased almost immediately. 


ABOVE: The James Brown statue on the median 

of the 800 block of Broad Street, a popular photo 

spot for tourists, is flanked by the gutted former 

Kress department store building, a structure that 

has been vacant for 30 years. 

RIGHT: The newly renovated 901 Broad St. 

building, right, sits next to the long-vacant 

and dilapidated former WAGT-TV office at 905 

Broad St. The renovated building will house the 

new Laziza Mediterranean Grill and nine loft 

apartments. 

Over the next years, his for-profit 

cooperative would go on to purchase 

and redevelop seven other vacant 

buildings in downtown Perry. Hauser 

was elected the town’s mayor in 2013. 

“There’s an expression that a picture 

is worth 1,000 words,” McMahon 

said. “But a project – a real project – is 

worth 1,000 pictures. Sometimes it 

takes somebody to do something different 

from the same-old same-old to 

wake people up.” 

Somebody to do something different. 

Perhaps that is what downtown 

Augusta needs most – different people 

and different ideas. 

It’s obvious from the more than halfa-million 

square feet of vacant space in 

Augusta’s central business district – a 

majority of which is in some form of 

decay – that many of the stakeholders 

are lacking something. Money. Time. 

Know-how. Vision. 

Or perhaps just the heart. 

Ramshackle and chronically vacant 

buildings in our central business 

district are merely manifestations 

of the larger problem – the owners 

themselves. 


The vacant three-story building at 937 

Ellis St., which once housed the Southern 

Bell Telephone & Telegraph Exchange, sits 

between two buildings renovated into loft 

apartments and condominiums. 

If that statement comes across as 

bold, that is precisely the intent. 

The mission of 1736 magazine is 

to document downtown Augusta’s 

revitalization in the hope that casting a 

light on its progression – and, at times, 

regression – will improve the urban 

core’s quality of life. Which, in turn, 

will improve the entire city. 

The downtown that this otherwise 

thriving mid-sized metro area deserves 

will remain elusive so long as decrepit 

properties in the heart of the city stay 

in suspended animation. 

That is not to say that every vacant 

building is blemished. Quite a few 

empty buildings are well-maintained 

and “move-in ready.” But many others 

are on the verge of implosion. 

This publication would never deign to 

dictate to private property owners what 

they should or shouldn’t do with their 

land and buildings. That is not our place. 

Downtown property owners are free to 

do what they wish, so long as they abide 

by the codes, ordinances and regulations 

enacted by duly elected officials who can 

be petitioned for the redress of grievances 

under the rule of law. 

Community leaders and business 

advocacy groups often point the finger 

at city officials when lamenting downtown 

Augusta’s gritty appearance. 

While we believe downtown 

deserves more attention from the 

local government, we maintain the 

bulk of the burden falls on the private 

sector. We believe it is fair to ask 

downtown property owners holding on 

to non-performing assets – particularly 

historic buildings endangered by 

neglect – to do some soul searching. 

The question for the owners of eyesore 

properties is simple: What is the 

point of owning a commercial building 

in the central business district if you 

aren’t doing anything with it? 

Surely, the intent was not to 

contribute to the blight of Augusta’s 

historic downtown corridor. Or to 

create magnets for vandals. Or to 

provide illicit encampments for the 

homeless. Or to cast shadows over 

a budding area struggling to make it 

through an unprecedented pandemic. 

So what, then, is the purpose? 

What’s the point? 

Ruminate, but don’t procrastinate. 

Empty buildings quickly become 

blighted buildings. Blighted buildings 

taint neighboring properties, foment 

an atmosphere of disorder and repel 

residents, tourists and potential investors 

in a locale by which the entire city 

is gauged. 

“We take stock of a city like we take 

stock of a man,” Mark Twain once said. 

“The clothes or appearance are the 

externals by which we judge.” 

Indeed, downtown property is like 

no other. It is special. And its ownership 

carries an unspoken covenant of 

responsibility and stewardship. 

It is a social contract that many 

owners have forsaken. 

To those with blighting buildings 

in downtown, we say fix it. Renovate 

it. Lease it. Sell it. Donate it. Just do 

something. 

The entire community is watching. 

And waiting. 


Curb appeal 

PARKING SPACES SET ASIDE FOR DOWNTOWN BUSINESS’ TAKEOUT ORDERS 

By DAMON CLINE 

A downtown parking-management plan 

has been put on the backburner because of 

the COVID-19 pandemic, but city officials 

recently enacted a stopgap measure to 

help accommodate the growing number 

of restaurant patrons opting for takeout 

orders amid coronavirus-related dining 

restrictions. 

In October the city converted 10 downtown 

parking spaces, primarily clustered 

in the Broad Street dining district between 

the 900 and 1200 blocks, to 30-minute 

zones so delivery drivers and takeout 

customers can more conveniently pick up 

food. 

A “windshield” survey of 22 downtown 

eateries conducted over the summer by the 

Augusta Downtown Development Authority 

revealed 71% of respondents said they 

intend to continue curbside pickup service 

for the next several months. 

“We asked if their (takeout) customers 

were having problems finding a place to 

park, and the overwhelming answer was 

‘yes,’” Woodard said. “We didn’t have 

anyone who said they didn’t want the 

signs.” 

As with restaurants nationwide, eateries 

in downtown Augusta have seen an 

increasing number of orders switch from 

dine-in to takeout. 

“I think it’s a good idea,” said Luanne 

Hildebrandt, owner of the Hildebrandt’s 

delicatessen at Sixth and Ellis streets. 

“Business is beginning to come back 

inside, but I still have a lot of people who 

definitely want to do curbside only.” 

The conversion of previously designated 

two-hour spaces was done strategically 

to enable multiple restaurants to use a 

single space. The 30-minute space in the 

500 block, for example, could be used 

by Hildebrant’s as well as Luigi’s and 

Sports Center nearby. The space in the 

1000 block could be used by Pineapple 

Ink Tavern, Southern Salad, Soy Noodle 

House and Whiskey Bar Kitchen. 

Havird Usry, co-owner of Broad Street’s 

Southern Salad restaurant and a board 

member of the Georgia Restaurant Association, 

said his eatery’s pick-up orders 

have “increased significantly” this year. 

“It’s up 50% as far as our sales go,” Usry 

said. “It’s probably 30 to 35% of our daily 

sales, so I think we’ll benefit from it.” 

Augusta Traffic Engineer John Ussery 

said city ordinances prohibit public spaces 

from being designated to a specific business, 

but the intent of the short-term parking 

spots is to encourage rapid turnover for 

customers and delivery drivers picking up 

orders made via telephone and internet. 

He said businesses will be able to place 

sandwich boards near the signs to direct 

customers to the spaces. 

“We just wanted to give them a way to 

indicate with something that is not permanent 

that this is the preferred spot to pick 

up food at various restaurants,” Ussery 

said. “We’re hoping for cooperation from 

the public, and I think once people get used 

to the idea of what (the spaces) are there 

for, they will be fine.” 

The Augusta Commission was briefed 

on the space-conversion plan before it was 

implemented, but a vote was not required 

because the city’s existing ordinances – as 

well as state and federal transportation 

manuals – already authorize cities to make 

such changes. 

Parking enforcement in the 30-minute 

zones, like other public spaces in downtown, 

falls under the purview of the 

Richmond County Sheriff’s Office. Ussery 

said the spaces can be used by anyone for 

any purpose so long as the 30-minute limit 

is observed. 

Figures from the DDA state that a 

downtown parking space generates anywhere 

from $150 to $300 in retail sales for 

downtown businesses daily. Woodard said 

the spaces are crucial to ensure downtown 

restaurants – most of which are operating 

at 50% capacity – can survive the COVID- 

19 pandemic. 

“We are still in uncertain times, and we 

want to do everything we can to keep our 

small businesses up and running to turn 

some sort of profit during this pandemic,” 

she said. “If people can’t find a spot to get 

curbside pickup, then they’re going to go 

someplace else.” 

New 30-minute parking signs installed near restaurants 

downtown, such as this one near Whiskey Bar Kitchen, 

are intended to help people pick up to-go orders quickly. 



At University 

Health Care 

System, patient 

safety is our top 

priority. We are 

successfully 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Don’t make the 

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UNIVERSITYHEALTH.ORG/SAFE-CARE-PLAN 

Please call 706-722-9011 for more information. 

AG-0003313541-01

District 1 Augusta 

Commissioner-elect Jordan 

Johnson, 27, seen here in 

Bicentennial Park on the 700 

block of Broad Street, is the 

youngest person to hold a 

commission seat since the citycounty 

consolidation in 1996. 

[DAMON CLINE/THE AUGUSTA 

CHRONICLE] 

READY to 

RUMBLE 

New District 1 

commissioner 

to fight for 

‘heartbeat of 

this city’ 



Jordan Johnson’s 

journey to the Augusta 

Commission’s District 1 seat 

may have begun in high school. 

Although the teenager’s bedroom walls 

were plastered with pictures of his favorite professional 

wrestlers, his locker at south Augusta’s Cross Creek High 

School was decorated with a magazine cover featuring the 

famous 2009 photo of the five living presidents posing in the 

White House's Oval Office. 

But over the head of George W. Bush — Johnson's least 

favorite of the five — the boy pasted a picture of his own face. 

“I had such a wild imagination,” Johnson said. “Whenever 

my friends would come by my locker and see it, they thought 

I was weird. They said, ‘Why do you have your face on the 

body of a president?’ I said, ‘I’m going to be on the cover a 

magazine one day.’ ” 


His dream of gracing the cover of WWE Magazine 

ended his junior year, when his left leg hyper-extended 

while being slammed to the mat during an exhibition 

match. His kneecap was literally shattered. 

The wrestling team injury that left Johnson in a full 

leg cast for most of the school year wasn’t his first — he 

previously suffered a tendon-snapping hip dislocation 

— but it was his last. 

“I said I don't want to do any more surgeries or go 

through any more therapies,” he said. “The wresting 

pictures stayed up, but the desire to wrestle went 

away.” 

The 27-year-old bachelor will enter 2021 ready for 

a different sort of battle: earlier this year, Johnson 

emerged from a field of five to win the District 1 seat in a 

run-off against against Michael Thurman with 61.8% of 

the vote. 

The 25,000-person district he will represent includes 

the entire downtown corridor, as well as parts of the 

historic Summerville, Harrisburg, Olde Town and 

Laney-Walker/Bethlehem neighborhoods. The boundaries 

also cover a wide swath of east Augusta that 

extends southward along the Savannah River to Augusta 

Regional Airport. 

Johnson grew up in east Augusta’s East View neighborhood 

before his family moved to Hephzibah while 

he was in elementary school. He moved back to the 

primarily African-American neighborhood — which was 

developed in the 1950s and ’60s by the Pilgrim Life and 

Health Insurance Co., once the city’s largest blackowned 

enterprises — while working for the Boys & Girls 

Clubs of the CSRA, a nonprofit organization he credits 

with helping him mature as an adolescent and eventually 

enroll in Paine College. 

The man who has yet to have his 10-year high school 

reunion is the youngest elected official since consolidation 

of the city of Augusta and Richmond County in 

1996, and he is believed to be the youngest person to 

hold a pre-consolidation office since at least the early 

1980s. 

A FRESH PERSPECTIVE 

Johnson considers his youth an asset. He said his 

primary reason for seeking the seat was to be a voice for 

millennials such as himself. 

“Augusta is in a great position for growth, and if we’re 

ever going to see that growth happen at a rate where we 

could benefit from it sooner rather than later, we’ve got 

to have people at the table who think differently,” he 

said. “One of the key things I found about other cities 

was that their growth was centered around their millennial 

base. When you look at downtown Augusta, a large 

number of the taxpayers are millennials. The average 

folks living in apartments above these restaurants are 

District 1 Augusta Commissioner-elect 

Jordan Johnson campaigns during the 

Aug. 11 runoff election near the Kroc 

Center near downtown Augusta. 


millennials. The young families moving into Olde Town 

were born in the ’80s. Same thing for the folks moving 

into the Laney-Walker district.” 

District 1 — represented through the end of the year by 

term-limited Commissioner Bill Fennoy, a baby boomer 

— is one of the city's most geographically and socioeconomically 

diverse political subdivisions in Augusta, 


with tracts occupied by everything from mansions and 

mobile homes to office towers and chemical plants. 

In Johnson’s viewpoint, the district also is the city’s 

most vital region. 

“It is the most important district in the city for 

the simple fact that downtown is here,” he said. 

“Downtown is the heartbeat of this city, and all of the 

other areas are, in my opinion, the veins. Whatever happens 

in downtown pumps the blood out to the rest of the 

city. And a great majority of the city’s economic drivers 

— the tax base — are in District 1.” 

Although the Augusta Commission is a non-partisan 

body, Johnson’s past and present political activities 

clearly align him with the Democratic Party, which 


he currently represents at the county level as chairman. 

During his campaign he received donations and 

endorsements from traditionally left-of-center organizations, 

including labor unions and former Georgia 

gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’ group, Fair 

Fight. 

The 10-member Augusta Commission’s voting patterns 

have historically reflected the city’s racial politics, 

with white commissioners usually taking conservative 

public-policy positions and black commissioners adopting 

a more liberal stance. The results often manifest in 

geopolitical schisms — a tug-of-war for city resources 

that largely pits majority-black and majority-white 

regions against each other. 

Johnson maintains much of the divide stems from 

Augusta commissioners too often eschewing their 

policy-making priorities to micromanage day-to-day 

government operations. 

“We've been focused so much on the hiring, firing and 

making sure the potholes are filled and the grass is cut. 

That’s government 101 — that's entry-level,” Johnson 

said. “We are the legislative branch of government, but 

we act as the legislative and executive branch. We hire 

department heads, so why not let them do their jobs? 

Otherwise, you’re going to spend four years worrying 

about cutting grass.” 

That’s not to say Johnson isn’t concerned by the 

city’s appearance, especially his urban-core district. 

He is particularly distressed by persistent flooding in 

east Augusta, the lackluster appearance of gateway 

entrances from the airport, long-vacant buildings in the 

central business district and dilapidated properties in 

residential areas bordering the city center. 

He believes the district’s disparate neighborhoods 

have more in common than most people think. 

“Harrisburg still has a lot of blight, but so does Sand 

Hills,” he said. “So, you know, it doesn't matter what 

part of the district you're talking about. A lot of the 

The Augusta Commission District 1 encompasses 

all of the central business district, seen here on 

the right side of the Savannah River, as well as 

its nearby historic residential neighborhoods 

and the east Augusta industrial zone. 



issues are the same: You don't want to see trash on the 

street. You want to see your roads paved. You want to 

go to nice places to eat. You want to see your kids go to a 

good school, locally.” 

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING? 

Johnson is entering the leadership arena at a time 

of unprecedented growth in Augusta’s urban core. 

Demographic changes have made urban living more 

attractive to young professionals and empty-nesters. 

The central business district’s growing number of 

bars and restaurants have shifted the city’s dining and 

entertainment epicenter from Washington Road to 

downtown. 

And a spate of public-sector investment – such as 

the ongoing expansion of Augusta University’s Health 

Sciences Campus and the $100 million Georgia Cyber 

Center – has the potential to create a high-tech milieu in 

the city center. 

But forecasts for additional downtown prosperity 

— as evidenced by the urban core’s growing number of 

high-end apartment developments — fuels what may be 

the most controversial topic on Johnson’s list of concerns: 

gentrification. 

Johnson said he applauds new market-rate apartment 

projects – such as Beacon Station, Millhouse Station 

and The Atticus – and the ongoing city-backed redevelopment 

of the historic Laney-Walker neighborhood. 

But he fears rising property values will make oncedowntrodden 

neighborhoods unaffordable to longtime 

residents. 

His core belief is that “revitalization” improves an 

area for people of all income levels, and that “gentrification” 

primarily benefits only the upper-tier of the 

economic strata. 

“We have families from all over the world who are 

relocating (to urban core neighborhoods), and that's 


wonderful. That’s revitalization,” Johnson said. “Gentrification 

happens when there's a lack of policy that protects people from 

rising tax increases and rising rent prices. So, for instance, if you 

bring a luxury development to a neighborhood that isn’t necessarily 

up to speed with that income, that development is going 

to raise taxes in that area tremendously. Well, what about Miss 

Barbara who lives a couple of roads down and is in her 80s? She's 

lived there all her life. She raised her children there. And now she 

can't afford living there anymore. So what typically happens is 

Miss Barbara has to move – she has to be bought out.” 

To minimize income-based displacement, Johnson supports 

the concept of “incusionary zoning,” a planning concept 

in which the government mandates that a specific share of 

new construction be affordable to low- to moderate-income 

households. 

Such a policy likely would be met with resistance from real 

estate developers, who contend downtown Augusta’s comparatively 

low rents already pose return-on-investment challenges 

to new residential construction. 

But Johnson, who spent part of his youth living in public housing, 

is adamant that the urban core — especially predominantly 

African-American neighborhoods — remain affordable to lower 

income families. 

“What (inclusionary zoning) does is it gives the people who are 

living in an area the same opportunity to enjoy the amenities that 

someone who is coming in town would be able to enjoy,” he said. 

“That doesn't change the fabric of someone’s neighborhood. 

That doesn't change the landscape of that neighborhood. That’s 

inclusionary. That’s diverse. That’s what we should want.” 

Johnson said he believes widespread gentrification has not yet 

occurred in Augusta’s urban core, so the time is right for policy 

discussions to occur. 

“I had a guy tell me, ‘When a Starbucks replaces the barber 

shop, you know you've got a problem,’ ” he said. “So we're not 

there yet.” 

EVERYBODY’S NEIGHBORHOOD 

The character of Johnson’s own East View neighborhood 

largely remains the same working-class neighborhood it was 

when he was a child. The majority of its elderly residents, he 

said, are original homeowners who retired from area manufacturing 

plants, service-sector jobs and the military. 

“It’s still that old, homey neighborhood that I grew up in,” 

Johnson said. 

He said he does not want inclusionary zoning to scare off 

new development in the urban core, which is home to the city’s 

vibrant medical district, its up-and-coming central business 

district and a host of resurgent residential neighborhoods. And 

Johnson acknowledges the district’s overall quality-of-life can’t 

improve without the influx of higher-income households. 

“We lack a grocery store in this district,” he said. “If you want 

a grocery store, you've got to get the income in the area up. We 

have got to have more money in our tax base to address some of 

the issues that urban core has.” 

Johnson said he admires the work of all District 1 predecessors, 

but that he considers the late Lee Beard — who represented the 

district in the late 1990s and early 2000s — his “political idol.” 

He said he has spent the past several months getting the lay of 

the political and economic landscape by reaching out to district 

residents, large property owners, and downtown agencies and 

organizations, such as the Augusta Downtown Development 

Authority and the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce. 

He believes one of his biggest challenges will be convincing 

city residents — and city leaders — that resources allocated to 

District 1 are “investments” that will benefit the entire region. 

“Is there a geopolitical battle? I would say so, and that's 

natural. I'm going to fight for District 1 as much as the other 

commissioners fight for their districts,” Johnson said. “There 

has been a push over the last eight years to really develop south 

Augusta — which is absolutely necessary, completely necessary. 

But I think we also have to focus on the heart of the city.” 

He said what makes District 1 unique, and ultimately an 

asset to the entire city, is that downtown is everybody’s 

neighborhood. 

“Building up your downtown, your heart muscle, is going to be 

very instrumental in pushing dollars elsewhere across this area,” 

Johnson said. 

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The Augusta Commission District 1 encompasses all of the central business district and its nearby historic residential neighborhoods as well 

as all of east Augusta and Augusta Regional Airport. [SPECIAL/AUGUSTA-RICHMOND COUNTY] 


JORDAN JOHNSON ON THE ISSUES >> 

EAST AUGUSTA FLOODING: The issue 

we have with the old city is that the 

infrastructure is sort of crumbling. 

I mean, that’s why you have lot 

of flooding in east Augusta. The 

conversation is that it floods because 

of the way that it sits geographically 

– Augusta sits in a bowl. Well, there’s 

nothing that engineering can't solve 

where flooding is concerned. It all 

goes back down to allocation of 

resources. There’s no reason why 

that neighborhood has been flooded 

out since the ’50s. There has been 

progress made over the last eight to 

10 years, but we have to continue the 

progress. 

GATEWAYS FROM AUGUSTA 

REGIONAL AIRPORT: I don’t think 

we understand the jewel we have 

at the airport. I've heard a lot of 

talk over the years about land 

around the airport and its economic 

development potential, I just haven't 

seen anything actually come to 

fruition yet. We need it. What if we 

fed people into downtown from the 

airport with billboards advertising 

downtown businesses? Think about 

it. You want a nice hotel, you’re either 

going downtown or to Washington 

Road. But there’s nothing on the way. 

NUISANCE PROPERTIES IN 

DOWNTOWN: It frustrates me that 

we do a lot of code enforcement on 

homes, but not so much on business 

owners. I am not in favor of a tax for 

blight – not as of yet. What I am in 

favor of is making sure that we hold 

business owners and land owners 

accountable for their properties in 

this area. We’ve got to do something 

to make sure that owners of these 

buildings know the conditions that 

their properties are leaving the 

downtown area in. They need to 

know we’re not playing around. 

ON THE IDEA OF BUILDING A NEW 

JAMES BROWN ARENA: It’s time. Our 

arena needs a facelift. By adding a 

couple of thousand more seats, we 

can attract better shows. Having 

the James Brown Arena downtown – 

connected to the Bell (Auditorium) 

– we can have ourselves an 

entertainment district. I love the fact 

that we're getting ready to get a new 

arena. That is great, and I’m going to 

support it. 

DEMOLITION OF ABANDONED/ 

DILAPIDATED HOMES: We have got to 

have more money in our tax base to 

address some of the issues the urban 

core has. You know, we have so many 

blighted homes – especially in the 

Bethlehem area, where the old brick 

yard was, the old mill – all those mill 

houses are run down now. We have 

so many of them because we just 

don't have the funding to put toward 

the demolition. 

GENTRIFICATION IN THE URBAN 

CORE: When I see developments 

come up, I get excited because 

we’re bringing in new people; the 

more tax base, the more opportunity 

we have to do better things. But 

I’m always concerned because if 

there’s no plan to take care of the 

people who have been living there 

for decades, then what message do 

we send to someone who bought 

a home (decades ago) and now is 

facing something that they don’t 

necessarily want. That’s the concern 

I have. 

DOWNTOWN PARKING 

MANAGEMENT: I know it’s not a hot 

issue anymore because (of COVID- 

19). I haven’t had that question asked 

in a long time. But yes, a parking 

management plan is necessary. 

I would hold off until after (the 

T-SPLOST) streetscape. We don’t 

want folks dodging construction 

and payment. We need a parking 

management plan that makes sense, 

that is in accordance with what 

downtown business owners and 

residents want. We also can look at 

our back streets – the Ellis Streets 

of downtown. There are so many 

different vacant properties that we 

can build parking decks and parking 

lots on. 

PERMITTING OPEN CONTAINER 

ALCOHOL IN DOWNTOWN: I 

definitely need to do some research 

on that, but just off the cuff, if you're 

going to have a downtown that 

attracts (young people), especially 

business folks and out-of-town 

professionals who just want to have 

a good time, we've got to loosen this 

idea that we’re just this retirement 

golf town. I don’t see the harm in 

open containers. If I want to go into 

a bar and order a mixed drink and 

walk to the Augusta Common and sit 

down and drink it, I should be able 

to. 

– The Augusta Chronicle 


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Leap 

of faith 

Joe Edge, president of Sherman & Hemstreet Real Estate Co., stands in the sanctuary of the old First Baptist Church of Augusta building on Greene Street. 

His company is planning a full-scale renovation of the historic property. 

Local real estate investors aim to restore, 

re-purpose historic Baptist church 

Story by DAMON CLINE 

Photos by MICHAEL HOLAHAN 

The old First Baptist Church of Augusta building 

on Greene Street has had many owners since 

the congregation moved to west Augusta in 

1975. 

But the historic property’s newest owner plans to do 

something his predecessors never did – invest in the 

building. 

“We drive by it every day,” said Joe Edge, president 

of downtown Augusta-based Sherman & Hemstreet 

Real Estate. “We were tired of driving past it looking 

dilapidated.” 

Edge, who purchased the 118-year-old building over 

the summer with Connie Wilson, the firm’s senior vice 

president, is in the early stages of a two-year historic tax 

credit-assisted renovation project that aims to restore 

the Beaux Arts-style building to its previous grandeur. 

The nearly half-acre tract on which the building sits 

at 802 Greene St. is most famously known for being 

the birthplace of the Southern Baptist Convention, a 

Protestant denomination whose number of followers 

are eclipsed in the Christian world by only the Roman 

Catholic Church. 

Edge, 38, said the 16,200-square-foot building will 

undergo a two-phase renovation, starting with the 

church offices on the south side of the property. Edge 

envisions the two-dozen compact offices in the twostory 

addition being ideal for individual professionals or 

small firms. 


The first phase of the renovation could 

take as little as nine months to complete, 

he said. The more complicated and timeconsuming 

second phase will be renovating 

the sanctuary, whose defining feature 

is the copper-clad dome rising 20 feet 

above the church’s 62-foot-high plaster 

ceiling. 

“The overall character of the building 

is one of massiveness, symmetry, and 

restrained Baroque monumentality,” 

according to a summary description by 

the National Park Service. “The imposing 

dome on top is a climax to the massiveness 

of the entire building.” 

Renovating the colossal space could 

take up to a year or more, Edge said. 

He is undecided about what to do 

with the sanctuary, but said he is leaning 

toward renovating into an upscale 

restaurant space, where the building’s 

neoclassical architecture would enhance 

the ambiance. 

An eatery would require the sanctuary’s 

sloped, amphitheater-style floor 

to be leveled, something Edge said could 

easily be done utilizing the church’s 

original hardwood flooring, which spent 

decades concealed by carpeting. The 

building has no dedicated parking spaces, 

but Edge said his firm owns a parking lot 

about a block away, which a restaurateur 

could use for valet service. 

The building also sits within walking 

distance of the Augusta Entertainment 

Complex’s Bell Auditorium and James 

Brown Arena. 

“I’m liking the idea of a restaurant 

more and more,” Edge said. “If anybody 

has a better idea, I’m all ears. We’ve got 

some time to figure it out. It’s a cool 

building.” 

Cool is an understatement. The building’s 

rotunda-esque interior – though 

decayed from years of neglect – is almost 

entirely historically intact. Most of its 

windows, doors, ornate moldings and 

stained glass – some of which are 

believed to have been designed by 

Tiffany & Co – are original, as are the 

Corinthian columns and decorative 

garlands that define the building’s stately 

exterior. 

The building was constructed in 1902 

to replace the smaller church that had 

been erected on the property in 1821. It 

was designed by William F. Denny, a 

well-known Southern architect who also 

designed Atlanta’s Rhodes Memorial 

Hall and the former Piedmont Hotel, a 

turn-of-the-century building considered 

Atlanta’s first “Northern”-style hotel. 

Edge and Wilson purchased the building 

from demolition contractor J.S. Rowe 

for $200,000 in late August. 

CHURCH continues on 26 

A worker walks past a boarded up section 

of the old First Baptist Church of Augusta 

building on Greene Street, which has 

deteriorated from years of neglect. 

A stairwell leading to 

the gallery of the old 

First Baptist Church 

of Augusta reveals 

peeling paint and 

cracked plaster. 

Despite years of neglect, 

the old First Baptist Church 

of Augusta building on 

Greene Street retains many 

of its original architectural 

flourishes, including its 

distinctive windows. 


A southward view of the old 

First Baptist Church of Augusta 

reveals its rotunda-like interior 

and its central dome, the 

building’s defining feature. 



CHURCH continued from 23 

An intricately designed window is seen from inside 

the old First Baptist Church of Augusta building at 

the corner of Eighth and Greene streets. 

“I think that’s a great price,” Edge said. “It 

would cost you $15 million to replicate this.” 

Edge is unsure how much money will 

be tied up in the building’s renovation; 

architectural and structural engineering 

reports are still pending, as are applications 

for state and federal historic-preservation 

tax credits, which Edge’s firm had never 

used before. 

“This is our first go at it,” Edge said. “Go 

big or go home, right?” 

For now, Edge is working on a new roof to 

protect the building from further moisture 

damage and is cutting back the vines creeping 

up the exterior walls. He’s also removing 

the old pews and cleaning out an accumulation 

of trash brought in by transients, who 

had been cleverly accessing the building by 

tethering a pull-rope through a space in the 

front door to the inside doorknob. 

Edge said the property will be protected 

by a security system once power is restored 

to the building, which over the years has 

been a target of burglars searching for 

copper wiring. A utility room housing 

the church’s electrical switchgear has a 

wall marked by the outline of a man-sized 

indentation. 

“We were told by an electrician that the 

panel must have arced while the guy was 

stealing copper and it threw him into the 

wall,” Edge said, pointing out the cracked 

wall during a building tour. “That had to 

hurt.” 

Though Edge eventually expects to reap a 

return on his investment, he said his primary 

intent was to save the historic property from 

being razed or collapsing on itself – something 

historic preservationists refer to as 

“demolition-by-neglect.” 

Although the building is listed on the 

National Register of Historic Places, the 

designation does not prohibit the owners 

of listed properties from demolishing the 

structures. 

The historic church was facing demolition 

just five years ago when city officials condemned 

the building after inspectors found 

homeless people sleeping under the portico 

and plaster falling from the ceiling. 

Edge said he had been negotiating the 

purchase for the past year to get what he 

considered to be a fair price for the unique 

but dilapidated building. Edge said the seller 

purchased the building to keep it from being 

demolished, but had no near-term plans to 

renovate the property to stave off further 

deterioration. 

“It took a little pushing to get him to sell 

it. I think he was banking on getting a little 

more (money). That’s the problem with a lot 

of things down here – you’ve got to take the 

risk and spend the money,” he said. 

Edge said the property’s significant 

architecture and historic lineage makes it 

more than a typical commercial real estate 

investment. 

“Normally, if we came across something 

like this, we would fix it, sell it and make a 

buck,” Edge said. “But we’ll never sell this 

building. I fully expect my kids and grandkids 

to own this one day.” 


Sunday, November 15, 2020 T27

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH: HISTORY AND HERITAGE 

The roots of the Southern Baptist 

denomination go back much further than the 

1845 organization of the Southern Baptist 

Convention at the First Baptist Church of 

Augusta. 

First Baptist’s congregation grew out of 

Appling’s Kiokee Baptist Church – the oldest 

Baptist church in Georgia and one of the 

oldest churches in the South, having been 

established in 1772. 

The spin-off congregation, known during 

its early years as the Augusta Baptists and 

the Baptist Praying Society, worshiped in 

several places around Augusta, including 

members’ homes, the Richmond County 

Courthouse and the Academy of Richmond 

County’s chapel. 

In the early 1800s the congregation 

purchased a plot of land at 802 Greene St. to 

construct the building that would become 

known as First Baptist Church of Augusta. 

By the middle of the century, a schism in 

the national Baptist organization – founded 

in Philadelphia in 1708 – was forming over 

the issue of slavery. Churches in the agrarian 

South dissented against the Northern 

churches, which were advocating for 

abolition. 

The Southern churches also rebelled 

against the national organization’s centralized, 

“top-down” style of leadership – which 

drew comparisons to the Catholic church – 

and petitioned for a “bottom-up” approach 

in which its fellowship of congregations 

would provide direction. 

The South’s boycott of the national Baptist 

meetings in 1842 and 1843 set the stage 

for the establishment of the first Southern 

Baptist Convention at First Baptist Church 

in 1845, a meeting that was attended by 166 

delegates from more than 4,100 Southern 

churches representing 350,000 members. 

The slavery issue was eventually resolved 

by the South’s defeat in the Civil War, 

which prompted many African-Americans 

to form their own churches during the 

Reconstruction period. Today, Southern 

Baptist members are 85% white, but the 

denomination is more racially diverse than 

mainline Lutheran and Methodist churches, 

which are 90% white. 

As the First Baptist Church’s Augusta 

congregation grew, so did the need for a 

larger church. In 1899, members voted to 

build a larger building on the Greene Street 

property and employed noted Southern 

architect William F. Denny, whose design 

was reportedly inspired by the La Madeleine 

Catholic church in Paris, which is known for 

its extensive use of Corinthian columns. 

The new church was completed between 

1902 and 1903 and served the congregation 

until 1975, when its leaders made the 

somewhat controversial decision – it sparked 

a lawsuit – to relocate to its present site in 

west Augusta off Walton Way Extension. 


The original First Baptist Church of Augusta, 

seen here, was replaced by the current 

building in 1902. [SPECIAL/HISTORIC AUGUSTA] 

A state historical marker 

celebrates the Greene Street 

location as the founding site of 

the Southern Baptist Convention 

on May 8-12, 1845. And the building 

was added to the National 

Register of Historic Places in 1972. 

A number of small congregations 

and a Bible seminary 

occupied the vacated Greene 

Street building from the 1970s to 

the early 2000s. The first occupant, 

Landmark Baptist Church, 

acquired the property for 

$750,000, with the late State Sen. 

Gene Holley offering $250,000 for 

a down payment. 

Holley’s subsequent bankruptcy 

left the church unable to 

service the debt, and it moved 

to a new location after the bank 

sold the property in 1984. 

The building changed hands 

several times during the next 

two decades as a number of 

small churches and educational 

institutions used the space, 

but all lacked the resources 

to properly maintain the 

16,200-square-foot space. 

The poor condition of the 

historically and architecturally 

significant structure earned 

a spot on Historic Augusta’s 

annual “Endangered Properties” 

list in 2013. 

The property lost its tax 

exempt status in 2017 when 

Southern Bible Church and 

School Inc. sold it to a limited 

liability company associated 

with Hephzibah-based J.C. 

Rowe, a demolition and grading 

contractor. 

SH Investment Group 1 LLC, 

an entity affiliated with Sherman 

& Hemstreet Real Estate 

executives Joe Edge and Connie 

Wilson, acquired the property in 

late August and have planned a 

full-scale renovation. 

Today, the Southern Baptist 

Convention that was birthed at 

the site remains an important 

denomination in religious life 

throughout the South, and it is 

the largest Protestant denomination 

in the United States. 

Sources: Augusta Chronicle 

archives, Historic Augusta, 

National Parks Service, Pew 

Research Center 

The morning sun shines through ornate 

stained-glass windows at the dilapidated 

First Baptist Church of Augusta building. 


COVER STORY 

reality 

Blight, unchecked vandalism 

make downtown appear unsafe 

PERCEPTION IS 

Story by DAMON CLINE | Photos by MICHAEL HOLAHAN 

The view from Margaret Woodard’s Ellis Street office is uninspiring on 

any day – it faces the back alley trash bin of the JB White's condominium 

complex – but the scenery was made even less picturesque over 

the summer. 

That’s when graffiti began appearing on the complex’s trash container. The 

director of the Augusta Downtown Development Authority noticed fresh “tags” 

appear on the brown roll-off bin every few days. 

She placed a call to her friend and former authority board member Paul King, 

whose Rex Property & Land owns and manages the building’s ground floor. 

“I said, ‘Paul, you’ve got to do something because your bricks are going to get 

tagged next,’ ” Woodard said. “He took care of it immediately and it hasn’t been 

a problem since.” 


Richmond County Sheriff’s 

Deputy Justin Lacroix patrols 

Broad Street in downtown 

Augusta by bicycle. 


But not every property owner is so swift 

to combat vandalism downtown, where a 

substantial number of vacant and dilapidated 

buildings already creates a public 

perception of lawlessness and disorder. 

The term for the phenomenon – the 

“broken window theory” – was coined 

in the early 1980s by professors James 

Wilson and George Kelling, who held that 

visible signs of minor crime and neglect, 

such as un-repaired broken windows, 

embolden further criminal activity and 

frighten the law-abiding public. 

The theory has become canon for 

public- and private-sector community 

COMPARE... 

Building: Former Sky City store 

Address: 1140 Broad St. 

Owner: Naman Hotels, Florence, S.C. 

Size: 48,018 

Year built: 1969 

Tax-assessed value: $1,185,456 

Condition: Vacant, dilapidated 

History: Sky City was an Asheville, N.C.-based discount department store 

chain whose Augusta store closed in 1989. The building's last tenant, the 

Broad Street Bazaar, closed several years ago. 

The Florence, S.C.-based franchise hotel operator acquired the building 

and adjacent lots, roughly 1.6 acres in total, in 2016 to replace the structures 

with an Embassy Suites hotel. The hotel project was announced 

around the same time as the Hyatt House hotel on the 1200 block and 

the scuttled Marriott-branded hotel at the corner of 9th and Reynolds 

streets. The Embassy Suites project is still reportedly in the works, but 

company CEO Ashok Patel has not returned repeated phone messages 

seeking comment on the project's status. 

A rusted awning hangs over the entrance to the former Sky City 

department store on the 1100 block of Broad Street. [SPECIAL/ 

AUGUSTA-RICHMOND COUNTY] 


Margaret Woodard, executive director of the 

Augusta Downtown Development Authority, 

left, shows the binder, right, cataloging more 

than 150 graffiti-marked sites in the central 

business district. 

development officials, who contend an 

area’s appearance of criminality has as 

much impact on the public psyche as its 

actual incidence of crime. 

“In this case, perception is reality,” said 

Ed McMahon, the Urban Land Institute’s 

Charles E. Fraser Chair on Sustainable 

Development and Environmental Policy. 

“The image of a community is fundamentally 

important to its economic well-being. 

Every single day in America people make 

decisions about where to live, where to 

work, where to shop, where to vacation 

and even where to retire based on what a 

community looks like.” 

UNSAFE, OR JUST UNKEMPT? 

Downtown Augusta’s appearance 

problems are well-documented. The 

city’s central business district – once the 

region’s center of commerce – began to 

deteriorate in the late 1970s as traditional 

retail migrated to suburban malls and 

shopping centers. The dearth of consumer 

traffic put a virtual freeze on most publicand 

private-sector investment for nearly 

two decades. 

Cracked and uneven sidewalks were 

ignored. Vacated buildings, many of 

which date back to the 19th and early 20th 

centuries, were mothballed by owners and 

allowed to deteriorate. Homes in nearby 

historic neighborhoods were abandoned 

by their original owners and slowly 

morphed into low-income rental units. 

To a visitor or even a suburban resident, 

the city center looked unsafe. 

Downtown began turning a corner in 

the mid-1990s as a slew of artists and 

young entrepreneurs began moving into 

low-rent spaces along Broad Street. The 

emerging downtown “scene” attracted 

young, urban-minded professionals and 

couples to an increasing number of loft 

apartments. Construction of the city’s 

riverfront conference and convention 

center along the Savannah River in 1992 

gave visitors and residents alike a reason 

to come downtown again. The first-phase 

completion of a new “central park,” the 

Augusta Common in 2002, became the 

first major public-works endeavor since 

Riverwalk Augusta two decades earlier. 

By the 2010s, most of downtown’s 

smaller storefronts were occupied by bars, 

restaurants and boutique retailers, leaving 

a handful of former department stores and 

office buildings with vacancies. A string 

of new downtown investments in recent 

years – such as the Hyatt House hotel, 

the Georgia Cyber Center, the TaxSlayer 

AND CONTRAST... 

Building: Security Federal Bank-Broad Street 


Owner: Security Federal Bank, Aiken 

Size: 4,000 square feet 


Tax-assessed value: $703,137 

Condition: Vacant, undergoing historic renovation 

History: Originally built by the Georgia Railroad Bank as its “uptown 

branch,” the building was used as a bank until the property was sold 

to the Augusta Genealogical Society in 1993. Security Federal Bank, 

searching for a downtown Augusta office, purchased the half-acre 

tract in 2019. 

The bank is in the midst of a historic preservation tax credit-funded 

renovation that is expected to reopen the building as a branch office 

in 2021. 

The former Georgia Railroad Bank uptown branch at 1109 Broad 

St., previously owned by the Augusta Genealogical Society, is being 

renovated by Security Federal Bank. [FILE/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE] 


Richard Williams paints the 

front of Firehouse Bar on Broad 

Street in downtown Augusta on 

an October morning. 


Graffiti and overgrown weeds mark the back of buildings on Broad Street 

(visible from Ellis Street) in Augusta. 

building and the renovated Miller Theater – diverted 

attention away from long-blighted properties. 

But then 2020 came. The COVID-19 pandemic emptied 

downtown restaurants almost overnight. Bars and restaurants 

closed. Downtown office employees began working 

from home. Meetings, conventions, sporting events and 

trade shows were canceled. 

With fewer pedestrians on sidewalks and fewer cars on 

the streets, the central business district's always-present 

vacancies – market reports say more than 20% of downtown’s 

vacant space is not “move-in ready” – brought 

blight back into sharp focus. 

With a lack of commerce and civic activity, officials 

once again find themselves having to convince the general 

public downtown is safe. 

“If storefront windows are broken out and there's garbage 

strewn about, you don't feel real comfortable walking 

through there,” said Richmond County Sheriff’s Office 

Captain Mike D’Amico. “If broken windows and graffiti 

are taken care of the next day and everybody picks up their 

trash, then you don't mind walking down that same street 

even if there is crime, because it feels more safe.” 

to those 

in our community 

doing the hard work 

of running local businesses, and who — 

in heroic measure—are navigating 

the challengesofthis pandemic: 

we seeyou. 

we supportyou. 

we thankyou. 

FACTS AND FIGURES 

Facts do not support the public perception of downtown 

Augusta as a high-crime neighborhood. 

In fact, according to Richmond County Sheriff’s Office 

crime statistics, Augusta’s urban core is among the city’s 

safest neighborhoods – particularly its central business 

district, where most downtown workers, visitors and 

tourists congregate. 

D’Amico said downtown crime, which primarily consists 

of property offenses such as car burglaries, has been 

on a steady decline for most of the past five years. 

“Its refreshing to see that our downtown area isn’t an 

area with our highest prevalence of crime,” D’Amico said. 

Using year-to-date figures through Aug. 31, with 2015 

as a baseline for comparison, total crime in 2019 had fallen 

1736magazine.com | 35 

AG-0003251289-01 

Member FDIC

Richmond County Sheriff’s Deputy Justin Lacroix, left, greets another cyclist as he patrols Broad Street in downtown Augusta. 

6.6% in the central business district. In 

the larger urban core area, which includes 

sections of the historic Olde Town, 

Laney-Walker/Bethlehem and Harrisburg 

residential neighborhoods, crime was 

down 6.1%. 

Crime is also down in 2020, but those 

figures have been massively distorted 

by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has 

greatly reduced the overall number of 

people working and recreating in the 

central business district. Shelter-inplace 

and social distancing requirements 

have caused overall crime to fall 38.6% 

along the Broad Street corridor and 17.5% 

throughout the entire urban core. 

D’Amico, who is in charge of all uniformed 

deputies in patrolling the county's 

“Zone 1,” which encompasses the entire 

urban core, said the zone used to have 

some of the highest crime rates of any of 

the county’s eight zones just a decade ago. 

“Over the course of the last seven or 

eight years those numbers have gone 

Richmond County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Mike D’Amico supervises all uniformed deputies patrolling the 

urban core section of Augusta. [DAMON CLINE/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE] 


Pedestrians make their 

way along Eighth Street 

in downtown Augusta 

toward the riverfront. 

COMPARE... 

Building: Former WAGT-TV office 


Owner: Charles Allen, North Augusta 




Condition: Vacant, dilapidated 

History: The NBC affiliate moved into the building in 1982 

and relocated from downtown to the WJBF-TV building 

on Augusta West Parkway in 2011 under a joint operating 

agreement between the two stations. The building had 

housed multiple businesses over the years, most notably the 

Bowen & Bros. department store. 

Allen applied for a Georgia Cities Foundation loan to renovate 

the property but did not complete the due diligence 

process. He said he has no near-term plans for the building 

but said he plans to put a roof on 913 Broad, the adjacent 

building gutted by fire in 2014. 

The former WAGT-TV building sits vacant and dilapidated on Broad Street to the 

right of the former Perry & Co. salon, which was gutted by a 2014 fire. 


down, and I think that is due in large part 

to the method in which we police now,” 

D’Amico said. 

The sheriff's office previously followed 

a traditional “beat” structure, in which an 

individual deputy was assigned to patrol 

rigidly defined geographic areas. In the 

zone concept, deputies work in tandem to 

patrol much larger geographic areas. 

Zone policing not only increases the 

deputies’ visibility – as many as eight 

officers could be in a single neighborhood 

at any given time – it results in quicker 

response times. 

“It’s kind of an omnipresence, because 

when that officer is investigating a car 

break-in, there are still three, four or five 

officers who might be passing by doing 

their patrols in the exact same area,” 

D’Amico said. “If one officer is tied up on a 

call, it no longer means the place is free for 

the taking for the next 20 minutes or so.” 

D’Amico also attributes the downtown 

area’s falling crime rates to the influx of 

millennial professionals and older “empty 

nesters” seeking an urban lifestyle and 

proximity to the nearby medical district 

and other major employment centers. 

“If you have someone living downtown 

who works at the (Georgia) Cyber Center, 

that person isn’t typically going to break 

into cars for a living,” he said. 

Although the sheriff’s office has an 

undisclosed number surveillance cameras 

downtown, the bulk of the closed-circuit 

cameras positioned at intersections in the 

central business district belong to city 

traffic engineers. The sheriff’s office is 

requesting Augusta commissioners include 

its $1.6 million proposal for 63 downtown 

security cameras on the list of projects in 

the special purpose local option sales tax 

referendum in March. 

Violent crime in the downtown area, 

though relatively uncommon, tends to 

have a greater psychological impact on area 

residents who consider it to be the community’s 

cultural epicenter, D’Amico said. 

High-profile incidents, such as the 

2016 gunfight that occurred during the 

city's Independence Day fireworks show 

and the 2013 beating of a young couple 

along Riverwalk Augusta, tend to receive 

more media attention when they occur 

downtown. 

Like most high-density urban cores, 

downtown Augusta attracts criminals 

seeking to commit “crimes of opportunity,” 

such as burglaries and thefts. In the 

case of auto burglaries, one of the most 

common offenses in downtown Augusta, 

many victims left their doors unlocked or 

had valuables visible through their windows. 

Similarly, a significant number of 

bicycle thefts result from owners leaving 

them unlocked and unattended. 

D’Amico said a criminal can simply walk 

block-to-block tugging at car door handles 

until he or she gets lucky. 

“If my intention is to break into cars, I'm 

going where the cars are,” D’Amico said. 

“I could hit 100 cars a night in downtown, 

whereas that would take me days out in the 

country.” 


Building: Loop Recruiting 


Owner: Loop Recruiting/Milestone Construction, Augusta 




Condition: Occupied, fully renovated 

History: The three-story building, once Broad Street's tallest 

storefront, was developed in the early 20th century by the E.M. 

Andrews Furniture Co. The property was later acquired by the 

Cohen family, which operated the popular Bee Hive children’s 

clothing store in the building until 1979. 

The vacant property was in decay until an investment group consisting 

of personnel firm Loop Recruiting and general contractor Milestone 

Construction bought the building in 2017 to house its offices. 

The staff of Loop Recruiting stand outside the company office at 

972 Broad St., a building that sat vacant for nearly four decades. 


MYTHS HARD TO DISPEL 

Officials can't establish a direct correlation 

between downtown Augusta’s 

blighted buildings and its incidence of 

crime. 

While falling crime rates coincide with 

increased investment in the central business 

district during the past few years, 

the city's large number of vacant and/or 

dilapidated buildings do little to foster a 

sense of public safety in the urban core. 

Charles Scavullo, general manager of 

downtown’s Imperial Theatre, said he has 

not seen a criminal incident occur before, 

during or after a show during the 14 years 

he’s worked there. 

However, he hears anecdotes from 

friends and on social media that downtown 

is unsafe. 

“They perceive it to be dangerous,” 

Scavullo said. “There have been some 

well-publicized things that have happened 

over the years, but as far as the entertainment 

district, nothing has happened in our 

neck of the woods.” 

He said he believes some opinions 

would change if downtown Augusta had 

less blight. The Imperial, for example, 

is surrounded by downtown Augusta's 

largest vacant buildings: the Marion and 

Lamar buildings to the left and right, and 

the former J.C. Penney department store 

building diagonally across the 700 block. 

Scavullo said some opinions would 

never change, even if every downtown 

building was spruced up and occupied. 

The Imperial Workers Theatre tend during to raised the Poison flower Peach beds Film in the Festival Broad in Street Augusta median Friday parking evening bays January in downtown 4, 2019. August 

“There are some people who just don’t 

like urban landscapes, and then there are 

the people who say they ‘never go downtown’ 

when that’s just not true,” Scavullo 

said. “I saw a guy I know on Facebook post 

once that he never goes anywhere downtown 

except Hildebrant’s. And that just 

wasn’t true, because I’ve seen him here at 

shows before. So if he’s coming to shows 

here, he’s probably also going to shows at 

the Miller and the Bell.” 

Aside from negative perceptions, 

persistently vacant or abandoned 

buildings can pose an actual public safety 

hazard. A report by the CCIM Institute, a 

Chicago-based organization representing 

commercial real estate agents, said crime 

rates “on blocks with open abandoned 

buildings are twice as high as rates on 

matched blocks without open buildings.” 

“Cities must address the issue of vacant 

buildings for a variety of reasons,” the 

report said. “Abandoned buildings depress 

property values, reduce tax revenues, and 

BLIGHT continues on 43 

COMPARE... 

Building: Old Woolworth dime store 

Address: 802-810 Broad St. 

Owner: Jay Klugo, Clemson, S.C. 


Year built: 1939-1945 


Condition: Vacant, severely dilapidated 

History: Three storefronts were combined over the 

years to create the Augusta Woolworth department 

store. The two-story building's lunch counter was 

the site of a famous sit-in protest by a group of Paine 

College students in 1960. The store closed in 1991 and 

has been vacant since. 

A plan to turn the building into a tech-focused business 

accelerator fizzled in 2017, Klugo, a multi-unit 

restaurateur who owns the popular Sole restaurant in 

Augusta, purchased the property in 2018 but has yet to 

renovate it. 

40 | 1736magazine.com 

The old Woolworth department store at 802 Broad St. has been vacant since the 

early 1990s. The property is in need of extensive renovation. [FILE/THE AUGUSTA 

CHRONICLE]

Graffiti, weeds and trash mark the back of buildings on Broad Street (visible from Ellis Street) in Augusta. 


Building: The Southern Salad 

Address: 1006-1008 Broad St. 

Owner: Brad and Havird Usry 





History: The father-son restaurateur duo opened their farm-to-table 

concept in the turn-of-the-century two-story building, formerly occupied 

by the Zimmerman Gallery, in 2018. The building’s second story contains 

loft apartments. 

The narrow, 0.2-acre parcel is one of the few on Broad Street with its own 

dedicated parking spaces in the rear of the building. A hole is cut through 

the wall to the adjacent Augusta & Co. visitor experience center operated 

by the Augusta Convention & Visitors Bureau. 

Southern Salad (left) and the Augusta Convention & Visitors Bureau’s 

Augusta & Co. store are among the newest renovated buildings on the 

1000 block of Broad Street. [FILE/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE] 


THE ALCOHOL EFFECT 

Patrons congregate 

outside Stillwater 

Taproom in 

downtown 

Augusta. [FILE/ 

THE AUGUSTA 

CHRONICLE] 

The city’s center for nightlife shifted 

from the Washington Road corridor 

to downtown Augusta nearly two 

decades ago. 

Although the central business district 

spent most of the 20th century as a hub of 

traditional retail, bars and restaurants are 

now considered its primary “anchor tenants.” 

The concentration of bars and clubs 

creates increased opportunity for criminal 

activity. 

Though violent crime is relatively uncommon 

in downtown Augusta, national criminal 

justice statistics suggest that 40% of all violent 

crimes involved an intoxicated offender. Two 

high-profile downtown incidents in 2019 – a 

homicide and a brutal aggravated assault – 

promoted Richmond County Sheriff Richard 

Roundtree to send letters to more than 30 bars 

and clubs requesting they step up security and 

submit formal “public safety plans.” 

“Our overall objective is to ensure that you 

operate your establishments in a safe and 

responsible manner, ensuring the safety of 

patrons and the general public as an integral 

part of your overall business plan,” the letter 

said. 

The safety plans, among other things, 

request businesses “designate one or 

more persons as a point of contact” for the 

sheriff’s office and release patrons in small 

groups at closing time “to avoid possible 

violent incidents.” 

Richmond County Sheriff's Office Capt. 

Mike D’Amico said he believes violent incidents 

are caused by only a small percentage 

of downtown patrons. Cases of drunken driving 

have been reduced by the increased use 

of ride sharing services such as Uber and 

Lyft, particularly among millennials. 

“The vast, overwhelming majority of folks 

are responsible adults and they behave that 

way,” he said. “That’s not to say that everybody 

does. We have some incidents, but not 

a great deal.” 

D’Amico said downtown bars and clubs 

“do a really good job of self policing” using 

their own bouncers or by hiring off-duty 

deputies to work security in full uniform. 

“Presence is the first road to deterrence,” 

he said. “Just being there helps. It tends to 

tamp down things that would grow into a 

problem.” 

A movement is afoot to expand alcohol 

consumption beyond the sidewalk tables 

of bars and restaurants. The Augusta 

Commission in June approved an ordinance 

allowing downtown businesses with alcohol 

licenses to serve customers outside their 

sidewalk footprint, so long as they had 

permission from the neighboring property 

owner and completed a $25 permit. 

Another commission-approved measure 

would allow businesses to temporarily 

close Broad Street’s side streets for outdoor 

dining and drinking, a move that other cities 

have adopted to help businesses struggling 

through the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The ordinance was to be tested in June 

by a group of downtown bar and restaurant 

owners, who applied to close off a section 

of 10th Street for outdoor tables. However, 

Sheriff Roundtree denied the permit, citing 

public safety issues. 

Chief Deputy Patrick Clayton, speaking for 

the sheriff, said the agency is concerned the 

permit will lead to increased public consumption 

outside the permit zone. 

“One thing we are vehemently opposed to 

is creating a situation where you have more 

alcohol downtown on the streets,” he said. 

“... When you start getting young men with 

copious amounts of alcohol, that is normally 

a breeding ground for violence.” 

The Augusta Downtown Development 

Authority, which supports the outdoor 

permit ordinance, is working with the 

sheriff’s office to determine if a compromise 

can be reached for planned events in the 

future. 


Workers tend to 

raised flower beds 

in the Broad Street 

median parking 

bays in downtown 

Augusta. 

BLIGHT continued from 40 

discourage development. They also act as 

fire hazards and magnets for crime. Each 

year, an average of 6,000 firefighters are 

injured in vacant or abandoned building 

fires. In some jurisdictions more than 70% 

of fires originate in abandoned buildings.” 

And according to the U.S. Department of 

Housing and Urban Development, “vacant 

and abandoned properties are among the 

most visible outward signs of a community's 

reversing fortunes.” 

D’Amico can’t quantify the economic 

impact of downtown Augusta’s undeserved 

image as a hotbed for crime. He knows only 

that reputational damage is easy to foment 

and is difficult to undo. 

“With good fortune and our officers doing 

what we ask, those numbers can continue 

to drop,” D’Amico said. “Certainly, you're 

never going to eradicate crime. If there’s 

only one crime in an area and you’re the 

victim, then it’s a 100% crime rate, right?” 

He recalled an incident when he was in 

charge of deputies assigned to James Brown 

Arena. A coliseum authority member made 

a public statement that people were not 


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Good first 

impressions are 

important, and bad 

first impressions 

are hard to change. 

Communities need 

to realize there is a 

return on perception 

that is over and 

above the return 

on investment. The 

perception of a place 

affects its whole 

well-being. 

ED MCMAHON 

A fellow with the Urban Land 

Institute 

Richmond County Sheriff’s Deputy 

Justin Lacroix patrols Broad Street in 

downtown Augusta by bicycle. 

COMPARE... 

Building: Old Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Exchange 

Address: 937 Ellis St. 

Owner: Michael Harrison, Augusta 




Condition: Vacant, stabilized 

History: Augusta was the first city in Georgia with full telephone 

service. Southern Bell, an entity known today as AT&T, 

operated its telephone exchange in several downtown buildings 

before developing its own three-story facility at 937 Ellis St. 

It occupied the building until it moved into larger offices at 

nearby 937 Greene St. in 1940. The building had numerous 

tenants over the years, including a thrift store, but has been 

vacant for most of the past two decades. Harrison, a real estate 

broker, did not return messages seeking comment on the 

building. 

The three-story building at 937 Ellis St. once housed the Southern Bell Telephone & 

Telegraph Exchange. It has fallen into disrepair during two decades of vacancy. 



Building: TaxSlayer headquarters 


Owner: TaxSlayer 





History: Built as the YMCA, the five-story building in recent years had 

been used as a fitness center by University Hospital's Health Central 

and The Family Y. TaxSlayer purchased the property in 2017 and 

embarked on a $10 million renovation project to convert the building 

into its headquarters and an “Innovation & Technology Campus” for 

its software engineers and programmers. 

The property is the largest private owner-occupied building in 

Augusta's central business district. 

The nearly century-old YMCA building at 945 Broad St. reopened in 2019 

as the new corporate headquarters for software firm TaxSlayer. 


Richmond County Community Safety 

Officers Cameron Carreras, left, and 

Mark Rettberg greet pedestrians as 

they cruise down Broad Street in 

their golf cart. 

COMPARE... 

Building: Former Kress department store 


Owner: Bonnie Ruben, Augusta 




Condition: Vacant, severely dilapidated 

History: The gutted building has been empty since the Kress dime 

store closed in 1980. Wood rot from a leaky roof caused the building's 

second floor to collapse in the early 2000s. Ruben, who purchased 

the building in 1988, has for years said she intends to redevelop the 

property as an open-air market. She has declined offers to purchase 

the building as recently as 2019. 

Revitalization organization Augusta Tomorrow's master plans over 

the years have depicted the Augusta Common extending southward 

through the building to Ellis Street. The property fronts the James 

Brown statue, a popular tourist attraction, in the median of the 800 

block. 

Augusta’s James Brown statue sits in front of the dilapidated former 

Kress department store at 834 Broad St. [ 



attending downtown shows because of 

criminal activity. 

“We didn’t have crime,” D’Amico said. 

“We had problems with panhandlers, but 

as far as crime, there was no crime down 

there. Nobody was getting robbed when 

they left. When they would go out to the 

parking lots, their cars were still there. 

“So when he said that, especially being a 

public official, now everybody thinks there 

is a crime problem,” D’Amico said. “How 

do we get past that to convince folks that 

their perception is wrong when you’ve got 

a public official saying that?” 

The key is making people “feel” safe by 

making downtown appear less vacant and 

abandoned. 

PROPERTY POLICE 

Some cities enforce codes much more 

aggressively as a tactic to spur business 

owners into action, either to make their 

properties attractive to occupants or sell 

them to investors who will. 

Chicago, for example, requires vacant 

buildings be registered with the city every 

six months for a $250 fee. The registration 

requires the owner have $300,000 

in insurance liability coverage for vacant 

residential structures, and $1 million for 

commercial buildings. 

Plywood can be used only to cover 

broken windows and doors for a sixmonth 

period. All property vacant for six 

Ed McMahon, a fellow with the Urban Land 

Institute, has written more than 15 books 

about downtown revitalization and historic 

preservation. [SPECIAL/URBAN LAND INSTITUTE] 

months or longer must have lighting at 

entrances and exits from dusk until dawn. 

Woodard, whose organization has 

shifted its focus from business recruitment 

to retention because of the pandemic, 

sought to reassure residents already 

unnerved by COVID-19 that downtown is 

safe. 

Working with the city and private property 

owners, she created a binder of photos 

and descriptions of more than 150 graffiti 

marks on public and private property 

during August. 

The city removed graffiti from public 


Building: Lowrey Wagon Works Apartments 

Address: 912 Ellis St. 

Owner: Mark Donahue, Augusta 





History: The 160-year-old wagon works building, developed 

by J.H. Lowrey, was confiscated by the Confederacy during 

the Civil War and later served as a school for free black 

children. In 1925, J.B. White's purchased the building to 

serve as a warehouse for its former store at 936 Broad St. 

It entered a decades-long period of neglect after the store 

closed in the late 1970s and regularly appeared on Historic 

Augusta's annual "Endangered Properties" list. 

Donahue acquired the property from a local real estate 

partnership in 2015 and converted the historic property 

into 19 loft apartment units. 

The Lowrey building at 912 Ellis St., vacant for nearly 40 years, now houses 19 loft 

apartment units. 


Richmond County Sheriff’s Office 

deputies drive along Broad Street 

in a golf cart. Deputies also patrol 

the central business district on foot, 


property, such as traffic signal boxes and 

lightposts, while private property owners 

were reminded of a city ordinance requiring 

graffiti to be removed or painted in as little 

as 21 days. Woodard is advocating the city 

shorten the response time to 14 days. 

“The reason we jumped on the graffiti 

so quickly is that it screams of gangs,” said 

Woodard, who is trying to create a graffitiremoval 

task force that would rely on paint 

contractors to provide in-kind services to 

targeted businesses. “We’re just trying to 

make it a process so that the quicker they get 

it, the quicker they get it removed. Graffiti 

artists are like panhandlers – if you don't give 

them what they want, they'll go somewhere 

else.” 

McMahon said murals can go a long way 

toward thwarting graffiti and creating a sense 

of community cohesion. 

“Philadelphia used to have a really bad 

graffiti problem,” he said. “Now they have 

more murals than any other city in the world. 

They even have mural tours.” 

One of the biggest challenges authorities 

face in dealing with blighted buildings are 

out-of-town owners, who often are unaware 

their properties have been targeted for graffiti, 

vandalism and trespassing. The sheriff's 

office’s Lt. Robert Silas tries to work with 

absentee owners as best he can. 

“When he doesn’t get their cooperation, he 

involves code enforcement and they end up 

getting charged,” D’Amico said. “We don't 

want to have to do that – we would rather 

you take care of your own property, because 

what ends up happening is that you have the 

homeless move in there and when it gets cold 

they set fires there to stay warm. One problem 

begets another.” 

Most downtown property owners cooperate 

with code-enforcement officials, but 

some do not, requiring the city to enforce the 

public nuisance ordinance through municipal 

court. 

“Some responses from property owners are 

good, and some are not-so-good,” Augusta 

Code Enforcement Manager Terrence 

Wynder said. 

Two large, dilapidated downtown buildings 

– the former J.C. Penney store at 732 

Broad St. and the old Sky City department 


AG-0003313536-01 

WWW.MEYBOHMCOMMERCIAL.COM 


URBAN 

CORE 

CRIME 

Below is a year-to-date (Jan. 1 through Aug. 31) comparison for crime reported in the downtown area bordered 

from East Boundary west to Milledge Avenue, and the Riverfront south to Laney-Walker Boulevard. 

CRIME 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Total 

AGGRAVATED ASSAULT 3 5 8 9 5 35 65 

AGGRAVATED ASSAULT-GUN 5 7 7 7 13 17 56 

AUTO THEFT 44 41 38 49 44 36 252 

BURGLARY 1ST DEGREE 52 57 54 42 65 28 298 

BURGLARY 2ND DEGREE 23 41 23 35 41 34 197 

CRIMINAL TRESPASS 207 244 238 260 192 175 1,316 

DAMAGE TO PROPERTY 150 192 160 197 187 179 1,065 

DANGEROUS DRUGS 59 60 42 38 44 59 302 

FRAUD 103 97 89 83 81 80 533 

HOMICIDE 1 3 4 2 1 5 16 

LARCENY FROM AUTO 117 128 139 167 117 94 762 

LARCENY-OTHER 262 315 296 302 295 205 1,675 

OFFENSES AGAINST FAMILY AND CHILDREN 4 1 8 3 4 8 28 

RAPE 8 8 13 4 6 5 44 

RECKLESS CONDUCT 13 13 7 14 7 10 64 

ROBBERY-BUSINESS 4 1 1 1 2 9 18 

ROBBERY-OTHER 14 19 10 20 13 9 85 

ROBBERY-RESIDENCE 1 4 3 8 5 1 22 

ROBBERY-STREET 9 9 10 13 4 5 50 

SEX OFFENSE-OTHER 25 8 13 14 10 10 80 

SHOPLIFTING 59 64 64 71 76 54 388 

SIMPLE ASSAULT/BATTERY 389 415 416 352 383 277 2,232 

TERRORISTIC THREATS/ACTS 16 20 10 13 12 14 85 

WEAPONS OFFENSE-OTHER 24 23 13 26 13 29 128 

TOTAL CRIMINAL INCIDENTS 1,592 1,775 1,663 1,729 1,624 1,339 9,722 

% INCREASE/DECREASE FROM 2015 N/A 11.5% -6.3% 4.0% -6.1% -17.5% N/A 

SOURCE: RICHMOND COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE 

COMPARE... 

Building: The Lamar Building 


Owner: Bill Blalock, Aiken, S.C. 




Condition: Vacant, poor 

History: Considered Augusta's first skyscraper, the 16-story structure was built 

in 1913 as the Empire Life Insurance Co. It was renamed the Lamar Building after 

it was gutted by the Great Fire of 1916 in honor of Supreme Court justice and 

Augusta native Joseph Rucker Lamar. The midrise became known as the Southern 

Finance Building in 1925 but is today more commonly referred to as the Lamar 

Building. 

Blalock, who purchased the building in 2016 out of foreclosure, has reportedly 

explored redeveloping the property as a boutique hotel. He did not return 

repeated phone messages seeking comment. 

The historic Lamar Building (right) is deteriorating after years 

of vacancy and neglect. The city’s first mid-rise building has 

reportedly been a candidate for a mixed-use development 

and a boutique hotel. 


Below is a year-to-date (Jan. 1 through Aug. 31) comparison for crime reported in the area from 

13th Street east to Fifth Street and the riverfront south to Greene Street. 

CRIME 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Total 

AGGRAVATED ASSAULT 0 0 0 0 2 1 3 

AGGRAVATED ASSAULT-GUN 1 2 0 0 2 5 10 

AUTO THEFT 7 9 10 14 10 4 54 

BURGLARY 1ST DEGREE 1 2 0 0 1 4 8 

BURGLARY 2ND DEGREE 2 9 3 4 4 8 34 

CRIMINAL TRESPASS 29 22 28 29 18 22 148 

DAMAGE TO PROPERTY 43 32 43 50 48 22 238 

DANGEROUS DRUGS 7 14 4 3 5 3 36 

FRAUD 12 18 18 19 13 15 95 

HOMICIDE 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 

LARCENY FROM AUTO 28 22 40 51 36 9 186 

LARCENY-OTHER 56 57 47 56 51 27 294 

RAPE 1 1 2 0 1 1 6 

RECKLESS CONDUCT 4 4 1 1 2 1 13 

ROBBERY-OTHER 4 6 2 3 0 1 16 

ROBBERY-RESIDENCE 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 

ROBBERY-STREET 2 0 1 2 0 1 6 

SEX OFFENSE-OTHER 0 0 2 2 0 4 8 

SHOPLIFTING 5 7 7 6 2 1 28 

SIMPLE ASSAULT/BATTERY 38 44 67 43 65 37 294 

TERRORISTIC THREATS/ACTS 2 3 0 1 1 1 8 

WEAPONS OFFENSE-OTHER 3 1 1 2 2 4 13 

TOTAL CRIMINAL INCIDENTS 245 253 277 286 267 164 1,492 

% INCREASE/DECREASE FROM 2015 N/A 3.3% 9.5% 3.2% -6.6% -38.6% N/A 

CENTRAL 

BUSINESS 

DISTRICT 

CRIME 

SOURCE: RICHMOND COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE 


Building: Former Kahrs Grocery 

Address: 401 Greene St. 

Owner: Heard Robertson 


Year built: 1850s 


Condition: Vacant, mothballed 

History: Vacant since the 1980s and listed as a Historic Augusta 

"Endangered Property" in 2011, the former corner market on the edge 

of the Olde Town neighborhood was rezoned in 2019 for redevelopment 

as studio and one-bedroom apartments as early as next year. 

The three-story property was built by German immigrant-owned N. 

Kahrs & Co. before the Civil War. Robertson said he expects to finalize 

renovation plans later this year and begin work in 2021. 

The former N. Kahrs & Co. market at 401 Greene St. in downtown 

Augusta’s Olde Town neighborhood is slated for redevelopment 

next year into a multi-unit apartment building. 


By the 2010s, most of downtown’s smaller storefront were occupied by bars, like Firehouse Bar, restaurants and boutique retailers. 


store at 1140 Broad St. – are scheduled to have 

court hearings in December. The J.C. Penney 

building, vacant since 1987, is owned by Augusta 

businesswoman Bonnie Ruben; the Sky City 

property is owned by a Florence, S.C.-based 

hotelier who had plans to construct a hotel on 

the 1100 block. 

Augusta Planning Director Rob Sherman said 

there is a backlog of more than 340 homes and 

commercial properties on the city’s demolition 

list. The cost of tearing down blighted properties 

– as much as $10,000 for a single family home – 

results in a lien placed on the property, but the 

city still has to bear the “up front” demolition 

costs. 

Dealing with recalcitrant property owners 

will remain a problem without stricter nuisance 

laws. 

“We enforce the codes to the extent the law 

allows,” Sherman said. “In Georgia, private 

property owner rights are really strong.” 

McMahon said the most successful downtowns 

are the ones who recognize what he calls 

“placemaking dividends,” such as increased 

sidewalk dining, colorful landscaping and murals 

that create a sense of public connectedness. 

Economic development is simply creating 

places where people want to be, he said. 

“Good first impressions are important, and 

bad first impressions are hard to change,” 

McMahon said. “Communities need to realize 

there is a return on perception that is over and 

above the return on investment. The perception 

of a place affects its whole well-being.” 


RETAIL 

OFFICE 

PROTECTING AUGUSTA’S ASSETS 

FOR OVER ACENTURY. 

All Assets •All Services 

BandCCommercial.com 

706.823.6740 

FIND US ON 

INDUSTRIAL 

MULTIFAMILY

COMPARE... 

Building: Former Cobern Furniture Co. store 


Owner: Rafik Bassali, North Augusta 




Condition: Vacant, good condition 

History: Cobern Furniture, which had bought the 

building from Rhodes Furniture in 1979, closed the 

business in 2000. The property was later occupied by 

Appliance Land, Henry Brothers Estate Auctions and 

Tradewinds Antique Mall before Bassali acquired the 

building in 2018. 

He has previously announced plans to redevelop the 

space into a mixed-use commercial building, with 

meeting space on the third floor, office space on the 

second and a cafe and boutique store on the ground 

floor. 

The empty former Cobern Furniture store at 1051 Broad St. is one of several vacant properties 

in owner Rafik Bassali’s downtown portfolio. [SPECIAL/CREXI] 


Richmond County Sheriff’s Office 

deputies Cameron Carreras, 

left, and Mark Rettenberg patrol 

Broad Street in a golf cart. 


Building: Leonard Building 


Owner: Allan Soto 




Condition: Semi-occupied, good condition 

History: The five-story Leonard Building was purchased in the 

spring by Allan Soto's Vinea Capital, which operates care facilities 

for adults with disabilities and owns the Pineapple Ink Tavern at 

1002 Broad St. 

He plans to renovate the building, which already has several office 

tenants, into his corporate offices and redevelop the ground floor 

into a restaurant. The building is most commonly known as the 

former headquarters of Merry Land Properties. 

The five-story Leonard Building at 702 Broad St. is being renovated by owner 

Allan Soto, who also plans to develop a restaurant on the ground floor. 

[SPECIAL/LOOPNET] 


Artist renderings depict the front entrance of Bell 

Auditorium (top), showing how it would be incorporated 

into the larger James Brown Arena complex to the south. 

[SPECIAL PHOTOS/PERKINS + WILL] 

Arena of the future 

Rebuilt James Brown Arena would be tied to Bell Auditorium 


The public now has an image to go 

with the $228 million price tag. 

Architects earlier this fall revealed 

a new James Brown Arena that 

would be connected by a large wing to the adjacent 

Bell Auditorium. 

The project would occupy roughly the same 

footprint as the original arena on Seventh 

Street, but would extend northward to connect 

at the back of the 80-year-old auditorium. 

Operators of the separate facilities have for 

years marketed the two together as the Augusta 

Entertainment Complex, with the 8,000-seat 

area handling large shows and touring events 

and the 2,700-seat auditorium hosting plays 

and smaller performances. 


RIGHT: The plaza in 

front of the new James 

Brown Arena would 

feature public art, 

including an off-center 

microphone stand. 

James Brown rarely 

performed without 

tilting the microphone. 

BELOW: A southwest 

view shows the historic 

Bell Auditorium 

connected to a rebuilt 

James Brown Arena. 

Together, the facilities 

are marketed as the 

Augusta Entertainment 

Complex. 

[SPECIAL PHOTOS/ 

PERKINS + WILL] 


The asymmetric roof lines of the 

proposed arena would contrast to 

the boxy appearance of the existing 

40-year-old structure designed by 

I.M. Pei. Architecture firm Perkins + 

Will, a leading designer of mid-sized 

market performing arts venues, said 

a pentagonal dome would top the 

100-foot-tall arena. 

The wing between the arena and 

auditorium would house offices, 

concessions space and wide-open 

spaces that make the existing arena’s 

concourses feel claustrophobic. 

The 10,000- to 12,000-seat arena is 

the result of a market analysis created 

by Atlanta-based Russell SPACE 

Venues and Hunden Strategic Partners, 

which found metro Augusta has quadrupled 

in size since construction of 

the existing arena in 1980. Its small size 

and outdated infrastructure cannot 

accommodate many modern touring 

acts. 

Designers are recommending more 

than 10,000 seats, with a lower-bowl 

capacity of at least 6,500. Higherpriced 

seats would include 1,050 

premium seats, 12 suites and several 

loge boxes, which are a hybrid 

between stadium and suite seats. 

Most of the existing arena’s 150,000 

annual users are attendees of high 

school graduations. 

Projected costs are $170.5 million 

for demolition and construction, $15.3 

million for site work and $30 million in 

soft costs. Adding an 18,500-squarefoot 

ballroom would add $16.7 million, 

a parking deck $18.5 million and an 

arena ice system $4 million. 

Augusta Commission members 

have been asked to put $25 million 

in the Special Purpose Local Option 

Sales Tax 8 package to help fund the 

construction. 

Augusta-Richmond County 

Coliseum Authority members began 

studying a larger arena project in 2014. 

The project was delayed between 

2017 and 2019 by a failed attempt to 

relocate the arena from downtown to 

the former Regency Mall property in 

south Augusta. 


Museum 

ROW 

Lack of funding will delay two 

new museums, one expansion, 

in city’s cultural corridor 


Plans to create two new museums in 

downtown Augusta and expand a third 

will have to remain on the drawing board 

a little while longer. 

None of the proposals will appear to make the 

special purpose local options sales tax project list 

that Richmond County voters will consider in 

March. 

Among the projects was a $2 million proposal to 

turn the old Academy of Richmond County building 

into a “Georgia Museum of Military History”; 

a $3.5 million plan to turn the old Congregation 

Children of Israel Synagogue and the adjacent 

Court of the Ordinary building into a Jewish history 

museum; and a $7 million project to construct 

a wing for the James Brown collection at the 

Augusta Museum of History. 

Backers of the projects, which tourism officials 

say would help create a walkable cultural 

attraction that would generate tourist revenue on 

lower Broad Street, say they are disappointed but 

undeterred. 

“We are pressing ahead with the museum 

regardless of SPLOST,” said Brendan Thompson, 

who leads the initiative to turn the 218-year-old 

Telfair Street building into center celebrating the 

city’s deep military heritage. “We will have to 

pursue alternate funding sources.” 

Thompson had planned to use SPLOST funds as 

seed funding before soliciting private companies 

and collectors of militaria. 


Brendan Thompson, 

executive director of 

the Georgia Museum of 

Military History project, 

wants to turn the old 

Academy of Richmond 

County building into a 

military history museum. 

[MICHAEL HOLAHAN/THE 

AUGUSTA CHRONICLE] 


A display seen at the James Brown mueseum. 


The original Congregation Children of Israel Synagogue building and 

the adjacent Court of the Ordinary building is part of a proposal to 

create an Augusta Jewish Museum. [FILE/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE] 

Augusta businessman Jack Weinstein, who is spearheading 

the Augusta Jewish Museum proposal, said the lack of 

funding puts the project in a “quagmire.” 

“The synagogue itself would cost a couple of million 

dollars just to do it right. Our fear is now that we will lose 

the building,” Weinstein said of the city-imposed July 2021 

deadline, which would cause the buildings to revert to city 

ownership if the museum was unfinished. 

Nancy Glaser, executive director of the Augusta Museum 

of History, said it will not move forward on the proposed 

addition without a funding committment. 

“It has to be first-class,” she said. “That’s the only way 

we’ll do it.” 

The museum holds the largest collection of James Brown 

memorabilia, more so than the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 

and the GRAMMY Museum. Glaser said it’s a shame the 

museum doesn’t have the space to celebrate the singer’s 

colossal influence on popular music. 


An artist rendering shows the front and side views of the James Brown wing that would be added on to the Augusta Museum of History. 

The project was the subject of a $7 million SPLOST request. [SPECIAL/KRUHU] 

“He was huge internationally. He was beloved,” 

Glaser said. “We are the town Mr. Brown loved, and 

we should have this. We should have had it a long 

time ago when he was alive, in my opinion.” 

The proposed wing would extend from the building’s 

southeast side toward Broad Street, incorporating 

the use of existing vacant storefronts as the 

front entrance. The addition also would house the 

permanent home of the James Brown Academy of 

Musik Pupils (or JAMP) organization. 

The proposed military and Jewish museums 

would sit across the street from each other in the 

500 block of Telfair Street, a block that also includes 

the old Medical College of Georgia building and the 

Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art. 

Augusta Commissioner John Clarke, an advocate 

for the museum projects, has said the cluster has the 

potential to be a visitor-friendly museum district 

when coupled with existing nearby attractions, 

including the Augusta Museum of History on Reynolds 

Street and the Boyhood Home of Woodrow 

Wilson on Seventh Street. 

“I think it would be an excellent idea to link all of 

these together and have a ‘museum row,’” he said. 


ON THE STREET 

By MARGARET WOODARD 

Executive Director, 

Augusta Downtown 

Development Authority 

Graffiti 

is not public art 

We are lucky in downtown Augusta to have agencies that 

promote and sponsor public art and a group of very talented 

artists who make it happen. Public art enhances the 

quality of life for our residents and tells our visitors that 

we are unique and embrace our sense of place and community pride. 

The murals being completed on exterior building facades throughout 

the Broad Street corridor are a great example of the rewards of a successful 

public art program. 


Westobou just completed a “Black Lives Matter” 

mural at 11th and Greene streets. On Oct. 27, “The 

Spirit of Funk” James Brown mural had its official 

unveiling at James Brown Boulevard and Broad Street. 

There are several more colorful murals underway. 

These murals reinforce that we celebrate our diverse 

and unique community. They demonstrate that we 

have a strong sense of civic pride and are economically 

viable. To sum it up, they speak loudly that we are 

proud of downtown Augusta. 

The recent rise in graffiti tagging in the downtown 

corridor tells quite the opposite story. Graffiti communicates 

apathy on behalf of the community. It 

sends a message that the neighborhood is not concerned 

about its appearance. It is an eyesore and sign 

of urban decay. 

Graffiti is costly to taxpayers, who bear the cost of 

its removal from public property. On private property, 

graffiti lowers property values and generates fear that 

an area is crime-ridden and unstable. If not removed 

immediately, graffiti can have a ripple effect and cause 

other forms of property destruction such as broken 

windows, littering and loitering. 

The DDA, city code enforcement and the security, 

management and resource team (or SMART Team) 

have worked tirelessly in the past few weeks to remove 

graffiti from public property and notify private property 

owners that their buildings have been tagged. 

To date, most of the graffiti has been successfully 

removed. 

Downtown Augusta is a beautiful historic district 

with a growing arts scene. Downtown Augusta is safe. 

We want to continue this momentum and need your 

help. 

The key to stopping graffiti is immediate removal. 

If you are tagged, please call the Richmond County 

Sheriff’s Office at (706) 821-1080 to report it. They 

will send an officer to record it and check public cameras 

for any tagging activity. Graffiti is vandalism and 

punishable by law. Consider installing security cameras 

and motion lights on your building as a deterrent. 

If you are unsure how to safely remove it, call the 

DDA at (706) 722-8000 and we will connect you with 

the right people. 

With cooler weather finally here and outdoor fresh 

air activities growing in popularity due to the pandemic, 

head downtown and take a stroll to discover 

the new murals on display. They may start new conversations. 

They may inspire you. They will make you 

proud. 

The Ellis Street entrance of a Broad Street building shows litter and graffiti, two common symbols of urban decay. 



GRADING DOWNTOWN 

7.0 5.5 

8.0 2.0 


PUBLIC SAFETY 

Previous score: 6.5 

GOVERNMENT 


HOUSING 


PARKING 


Criminal incidents are way 

down in the central business 

district, primarily because of 

the COVID-19 pandemic; fewer 

people out and about, obviously, 

reduces the potential for criminal 

activity. The general public 

also should be excited by the 

prospect of more than five dozen 

new police surveillance cameras 

downtown if the Richmond 

County Sheriff’s Office’s $1.6 

million request makes it on the 

special purpose local sales tax 

project list in March. 

It’s been said the government 

that governs best governs the 

least. Though the Augusta 

Commission hasn't implemented 

any significantly positive policies 

affecting downtown during 

the past quarter, it hasn't 

implemented any negative 

ones, either. There hasn't been 

much to complain about besides 

Mayor Hardie Davis’ near-unilateral 

cancellation of the Ironman 

70.3 Augusta race – triathalon 

organizers had wanted to come 

– and too few “wow” projects on 

the SPLOST VIII project list. 

Downtown Augusta’s most 

reliable commercial real estate 

sector – residential – does not 

appear to be losing much steam 

as the national pandemic gives 

people across America pause 

about living in high-density urban 

areas. Working in Augusta’s 

favor is its continually growing 

labor market and the relatively 

affordable rents at its new 

“class A” luxury apartments. 

New apartment complexes and 

loft renovation projects will add 

dozens of market-rate residential 

units to downtown’s housing 

inventory in the coming quarters. 

Finally, movement in the right 

direction. The city and Augusta 

Downtown Development 

Authority worked together in 

October to convert streetside 

parking on Broad Street to 

30-minute-only spaces targeted 

at the growing number of restaurant 

patrons opting for curbside 

pickup. It’s the first positive 

movement we’ve seen to better 

manage downtown parking in 

years. And if there is one upside 

to the COVID-19 pandemic: 

downtown parking spaces are 

plentiful. 

7.5 6.5 7.5 3.0 

DEVELOPMENT 


INFRASTRUCTURE 


ARTS & CULTURE 


COMMERCE 


New construction and reinvestment 

keep chugging along in the 

urban core despite the ongoing 

pandemic. A spate of new 

multifamily apartment communities 

are on the drawing boards 

and several smaller renovation 

projects are underway at multiple 

addresses in the central business 

district. Leaders at Augusta 

University also have been hinting 

that new buildings are needed 

at the Nathan Deal Campus for 

Innovation to house overflow at 

the Georgia Cyber Center. 

The most visible public works 

project in downtown – the makeover 

of the Fifth Street Bridge 

into a pedestrian only walking/biking 

trail is in full swing 

and promises to be an attractive 

amenity to the Riverwalk 

Augusta corridor. Meanwhile, 

city officials spent the summer 

removing graffiti from public 

property throughout the central 

business district and have 

politely, but firmly, encouraged 

private property owners to do 

the same. 

It’s still a long way from becoming 

reality, but the newly unveiled 

expansion plan for James Brown 

Arena should excite all area residents. 

Architects and planners 

revealed a visually stunning $228 

million concept in September that 

would add seats to the arena and 

connect it to the adjacent Bell 

Auditorium. An arena makeover 

has been long overdue, and the 

increased seating capacity and 

state-of-the-art stage systems 

are sure to entice more touring 

acts to town. 

The pandemic continues to 

deliver a double whammy to 

downtown business: Not only 

are more downtown employees 

working remotely from home, 

the ones who are in the offices 

are less interested in shopping 

and dining at downtown businesses 

for fear of spreading the 

COVID-19 virus. Eateries have 

been able to recoup some of 

their losses by boosting takeout 

and delivery orders, but a protracted 

pandemic does not bode 

well for urban commerce. 

OVERALL SCORE: 

5.87 



BRIEFING 


HITS & MISSES 

ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE: For 51 weeks out of the year, Augusta “is what it is”: A nice and 

friendly place to visit for a couple of days. Marketing the city’s casual, comfortable and authentic 

experience to regional tourists is a smart move by the Augusta Convention & Visitors Bureau. The 

tourism board’s new “Come See Augusta” branding campaign – which puts the emphasis on the 

“us” in Augusta – serendipitously dovetails nicely with the current COVID-19 environment, in which 

tourists are more likely to make road trips to less-congested cities than fly to tourist-packed markets. 

Pandemic or not, we hope the campaign sticks around for many years to come. 

PARKING AGREEMENT REVISITED: Let’s be honest – the city’s parking agreement with 

downtown tech giant Unisys wasn’t thought out very well. Not only was it extremely ambiguous, 

it saddled one of the city’s most valuable tracts of riverfront land – the 6-acre “depot” site – with 

an encumbrance that will complicate the property’s redevelopment for the foreseeable future. 

Fortunately, the property’s surface lot is more than adequate for Unisys and SAIC, the company 

that recently acquired its government contract operation. The lot even has potential to accommodate 

the growing number of Augusta University employees being housed at the nearby 699 Broad 

St. office tower. The city should focus attention toward building a multi-story deck at the site to 

free up acreage at the depot site for redevelopment. 

PROTESTS, NOT RIOTS: Peaceful protests in downtown Augusta have been just that – peaceful. 

Unlike widespread civil unrest in many cities nationwide, which were sparked by the death 

of George Floyd and other high-profile incidents involving the police and African-Americans, the 

Garden City’s residents and first responders have done an admirable job of staying cool in a heated 

environment. We can only assume the absence of assaults, arson and vandalism at Augusta protests 

reflects the levelheadedness of its citizenry and the proactive community-relations efforts by 

the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office. Downtown Augusta is struggling enough from the pandemic 

– it doesn’t need further disruption by violent protesters. 

HIGHWAY ROBBERY: It’s only natural when selling something – anything – to extract the highest 

price possible from the buyer. But there comes a point where above-market-value asking prices 

tread into the territory of ridiculousness. And that appears to be the situation occurring in the east 

side of the historic Harrisburg neighborhood, where absentee owners are asking an arm and a 

leg for mostly ramshackle residential properties near the former Central Square shopping center 

owned by the MCG Foundation, which is trying to revitalize the blighted area into a mixed-use 

“gateway” to serve the medical district. The biggest barrier to realizing the $150 million proposal 

along 15th Street has been property owners mistaking the nonprofit for a deep-pocketed corporation 

with a bottomless bank account. They are not. 


HITS & MISSES 

GREAT SCOTT: No organization likes to lose good people. So we can understand the Augusta 

Downtown Development Authority lamenting the loss of its longtime board member, Scylance B. Scott 

Jr., who stepped down from his role as chairman earlier this year. Although the move will give the 

economic development organization fresh leadership in the form of Jack Evans – a very competent 

Augusta University administrator – Scott’s deep and diverse connections throughout the Augusta 

community made him effective at helping the organization transcend the geopolitical divides that 

often slow the community’s progress. Scott, the CEO of the Antioch Ministries community development 

organization, will be greatly missed at the DDA. And so will his former vice chairman Rick Keuroglian, 

who earlier this year moved to Brush, Colorado, to serve as assistant town manager. 

“FOREIGN” INVESTMENTS: While we’d prefer to see local companies investing in the urban 

core, we’re more than happy to settle for the next best thing – out-of-town capital. Earlier this 

year New York-based DXE Properties acquired downtown’s time-worn River Ridge Apartments on 

13th Street to renovate it into a mid-priced community called “The Downtowner.” The multimillion-dollar 

renovation will include modernizing the kitchens and bathrooms and adding modern 

amenities such as a fitness center, a dog park and outdoor grill stations. The 104-unit complex, 

situated between the city’s central business and medical districts, should be a welcome midpriced 

addition to downtown’s growing multifamily residential market. 

GETTING IT TOGETHER: Augusta’s central business district is not the downtown it was just 10 

years ago, said Jennifer Napper, a vice president for military contractor Perspecta and a retired 

Army officer stationed at Fort Gordon. If it was, she said, she likely would have been unable to 

convince 100 of the company’s employees to uproot from the metro D.C.-area to relocate to Augusta 

to help service Perspecta’s cybersecurity contract with Army Cyber Command. “(They) said we liked 

what we see in Augusta better,” Napper said, adding that Army cyber’s influence on the community 

has strengthened ties between elected officials and business leaders. “If you would have told me 

10 years ago I could attract 100 folks to come down here, I would have said it’s probably not going 

to happen.” Here’s hoping for additional growth at the Georgia Cyber Center, where Perspecta will 

house its back-office and employee-training operations. When other prospective employees are 

given the chance to experience downtown Augusta, we believe they will like what they see, too. 

SOMEBODY HAD TO STEP UP: Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands 

to effect a positive change. That’s exactly what Sherman & Hemstreet Real Estate executives 

Joe Edge and Connie Wilson did over the summer when they purchased the old First Baptist 

Church of Augusta building on Greene Street. After more than three decades of neglect, the 

historically and architecturally significant structure is set to undergo a two-phase renovation 

project designed to convert the church administration area into an office building and its 

highly recognizable sanctuary building into an upscale restaurant. Buying and investing in a 

long-vacant property is a bold and risky move, but it’s an example we wished other downtown 

property owners would follow. It’s certainly better than allowing buildings to sit and rot. 


FINAL WORDS 

The biggest danger in 

downtown Augusta? 

The uninformed 

I 

moved to Augusta 23 years ago. 

The vast majority of those years have been 

spent working in the downtown area. I have 

spent countless evenings – and more than a few 

early morning hours – soaking up all the entertainment, 

dining and drinking that the central business 

district’s establishments have to offer. 

I even resided in downtown Augusta for several 

months, renting a second-story room in the home 

of 510 Greene St. (That, in itself, is a story – but one 

best reserved for another time.) 

Needless to say, I have driven, biked and walked 

through every downtown residential neighborhood 

at one time or another, from east Augusta and 

Laney-Walker/Bethlehem to Harrisburg and Olde 

Town. 

And not once during any of those 23 years have 

I felt the personal safety of myself or those around 

me – including my wife and children – were ever in 

jeopardy. 

So you can imagine I get a little bristly when I hear 

some locals speak of downtown Augusta as if it’s a 

lawless wasteland where danger lurks around every 

corner. 

Ironically, it seems the most vocal area residents 

are those who spend little to no time living, working 

or playing in the downtown area. 

Don't misunderstand me: I'm not saying crime 

doesn’t occur in downtown Augusta. I’m saying the 

prevalence of criminality is nowhere near the level 

that many in this community believe it is. In fact, 

crime statistics show downtown Augusta is one of 

the city's safer neighborhoods. 

So why the bad rep? 

Well, for one, dilapidated structures in the urban 

DAMON CLINE, EDITOR 

core. Few things are as unsettling to a visitor’s 

psyche as buildings that appear abandoned. Storefronts 

with broken and boarded up windows can cast 

a fearful pallor over an entire block. It all goes back 

to childhood; the bogeyman dwells in the dark and 

empty spaces of this world. 

The derelict vibe created by littered streets and 

graffiti-tagged walls might as well be a signpost that 

reads "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." To suburbanites 

and out-of-town visitors, a city that can’t 

appear to handle petty nuisances must be incapable of 

dealing with more serious forms of trouble. 

Another reason for downtown’s undeserved reputation 

is that it is always under a microscope. A serious 

crime, such as an aggravated assault, will get much 

more media attention if it occurs in the central business 

district than if it occurred, say, in a west Augusta shopping 

center or a subdivision in Hephzibah. 

For that reason, violent crime in downtown 

Augusta – though comparatively rare – will always 

linger longer in the minds of residents. 

What can the community do to change downtown’s 

perception? A few things come to mind. 

First, we all need to have realistic expectations 

when it comes to downtown Augusta. The downtown 

of every large and mid-sized metro area is going to 

have a certain degree of seediness: aging infrastructure, 

buildings in various states of disrepair, panhandlers, 

etc. It is unrealistic to expect Augusta – with 

its 19th and early 20th century architecture and 

infrastructure – to look like Disneyland. 

Most people are generally OK with, and actually 

prefer, a little grunge in their city center – it adds 

character. The problem occurs when grunge is the 

only thing they notice. 


Second, municipal authorities can do their part by 

aggressively ridding public spaces of litter and graffiti. 

Then, they can focus attention toward derelict private 

properties through increased code enforcement, starting 

with the most egregious violators. No reasonable person 

would suggest punishing property owners for having a 

vacant building, but most can agree broken windows, 

cracked stucco and crumbling facades deserve a citation. 

Building owners and their tenants also could take a 

little more pride in their properties. Sweep out your 

doorways. Pick up your trash – even litter on the 

“public” part of the sidewalk. It only takes a minute. And 

for goodness sake, would it kill ’ya to clean your facades 

every once in a while? (Harbor Freight sells a pressure 

washer strong enough to peel the chewing gum off concrete 

for 80 bucks; I highly recommend it). 

As individuals, we can do a much better job of practicing 

situational awareness and heading off trouble 

before it starts. A surprising number of downtown auto 

burglaries, for instance, result from people neglecting to 

lock their car doors or by leaving valuables in plain view 

for an easy smash-and-grab. 

This is one area I don't mind “victim blaming” because 

I, myself, have been negligent. I once let my old Pontiac 

sit in the employee parking lot unlocked over a weekend. 

On Monday morning I discovered the steering column 

had been cracked open during a failed attempt to steal a 

car that I (wrongly) assumed was not worth stealing. 

Luckily for me, the criminal was an amateur; any selfrespecting 

car thief should have been able to make off 

with a General Motors-built model from the 1980s. The 

numskull even left behind the screwdriver he unsuccessfully 

deployed to jimmy my ignition switch. 

I kept that Pontiac for two more years, with the doors 

always locked. I eventually sold the car. The screwdriver, 

however, remains in my toolbox to this day. 

My final word of advice – particularly to you youngsters 

going out for a drink or three – would be to behave 

yourselves and keep your egos in check. Many free 

rides to jail have been instigated by nothing more than 

an innocent bump at the bar or a perceived slight from 

across the room. 

Although the laws of the universe dictate people who 

go out looking for trouble eventually find it, there's 

nothing in the statute’s fine print that says you must be 

the one to give some chowderhead the confrontation he 

seeks. 

As Kenny Rogers once said, “walk away from trouble if 

you can.” 

That’s sage advice. Even in downtown Augusta, where 

there’s not much trouble to begin with. 

“ 

First, we all need to have 

realistic expectations 

when it comes to 

downtown Augusta. The 

downtown of every large 

and mid-sized metro area 

is going to have a certain 

degree of seediness: aging 

infrastructure, buildings 

in various states of 

disrepair, panhandlers, 

etc. It is unrealistic to 

expect Augusta – with 

its 19th and early 20th 

century architecture and 

infrastructure – to look 

like Disneyland.

Fall 2020 - 1736 Magazine

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