Fall 2020 - 1736 Magazine

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
Address: 1109 Broad St.
Owner: Security Federal Bank, Aiken
Size: 4,000 square feet
Year built: 1924
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]
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