Topher1

Looks like a great list to me. The writer wisely chose primarily downtown businesses. I'd have included a best pizza category to give Ferrando's a nod I always have to get a pizza there when I'm in town. I can't wait to try some of these suggestions when I'm in town for the holidays.

I really like some of the ideas presented in this article... I had been getting nervous, since most of the talk has been to build a new municipal building in one of the new mega-subdivisions out on the bypass near USCA. The idea of adding 2 floors to the existing building downtown (making it 4 floors) sounds very exciting. For those who don't know, while downtown Aiken is very active and thriving, there are no structures more than 3 stories in the main core. It would be awesome to actually have City Hall as the focal point downtown, rather than what it is currently (an obscure building that really just blends in). And maybe it might bring the standard for new infill up to 4 floors (most new stuff going in right now is capping at 3 floors)...

Welcome back (I hope)!

Hammond's Ferry has some good photos on their website (probably about a month old now)... Here's one that I loved... A lot of progress... A good mix of densities... Phase I is supposed to be the LEAST dense phase of the development, so I can't wait to see how the more urban portions closer to Georgia Ave and West Ave turn out.

Completely off the top of my head and incomplete information: Kroc Center: First portion (an adult job training center) is underway. This part is off of Broad St., past 15th away from dt. The judicial center, library, and federal bankruptcy court are planned for the intersection of Telfair and James Brown Blvd. (from the Chronicle last week). No clue on the time frame, but the article stated that spin-off development and speculative purchasing is already occurring on surrounding parcels, including a $1.75 million dollar purchase of a nearby 1.73 acre parcel, which is, IMO, pretty pricy, given the existing condition of the area... http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/100606/met_99345.shtml Also, did anyone see the article today about the vote to "support building a $25 million exhibition center in the downtown area."? Another project to add to the "when/will it happen" list... http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/101306/bus_100274.shtml

I also agree completely... Augusta would be very wise to look north to Greenville to emulate their success with West End and the falls park when it comes to developing the canal. Add in the library, judicial center, and the Kroc center, and thats some serious momentum for the canal area.

The formal presentation is Wednesday... Jeb Bush is getting the letter today. I'm not sure if that means we'll know before Wednesday or not.

^ Found this link surprisingly quickly in an ancient thread. This is a pdf originally posted by jaybee. The most telling site plan is on page 14 of the pdf. http://www.cityoforlando.net/planning/city...N2004-00039.pdf EDIT: Just to note, this info is more than a year old.

I'm pretty sure that nearly all of these homes ARE in the city limits. These 1500 homes are just phase I of plans to build 5000 homes. This particular subdivision is in the Sage Valley area, near the I-20 interchange with Bettis Academy Rd (exit 11). The remaining 3000+ homes proposed by these developers will be in a sprawling 1800 acre community straddling Aiken, Vaucluse, and Graniteville off of Aiken's bypass called Trolley Run Station. I'm really surprised that they plan to have 1500 homes completed by the end of the year. I didn't see too much progress when I was home in July. Here's the link to the developers. Check out the plans for Trolley Run... Its MASSIVE! (but hideously sprawly)... www.finedeering.com

Heh... Thanks for all of the updates, Tim! Gives us all something to look forward to on the 15th of each month

This aerial shows the site of Hammond's Ferry on the lower-left side of the river. The portion currently under development is in the grassy area, beneath the small lake shown in the aerial. The town center will be in the wooded area near the bridge. Also of note, this aerial shows some of the construction of the Landing at River Club condos directly across the bridge, as well as the hideous mcmansions that are hogging the rest of the N. Augusta waterfront...

And a series from Hammond's Ferry in North Augusta. The project is finally underway, and the first phase is the Crystal Lake Road area. THis portion is further into the project and predominately single-family, but it looks like a good mix of densities is even going into this area. First up, the river... A wide swath of public space fronting the river? I love this project already! This is the Crystal Lake entrance. I imagine it will not look as suburban when fully developed... The bridge over the entrance is North Augusta's Greeneway biking/walking trail system... (The Greeneway integration is my 2nd favorite part of the project) The homes are tall and thin with minimal side-yards. The vinyl siding does kind of trouble me however... But fortunately, the completed, fully-painted homes look quite nice. Lastly, a novelty in the area... Multifamily and single family uses on the same block!? The long yellow home looks a bit strange not, but there's lots in front of it that will block out the length of the home when developed.

Here's some shots from around Aiken Co. from this weekend... Some good infill going on in Aiken... These are some newly completed townhouses in DT Aiken, on the site of a former gas station. Unfortunately this massive structure is only 3 huge units, but its still an improvement to the corner. Some progress on the mixed-use project on the site of the former dt cinema. This one is one that I hadn't heard of. A suburban style townhouse project is going up on Morgan St, next to a new 5-story apartment building. This is significant because Morgan St, as of about 2 years ago consisted of nothing but rotten shotgun houses and trash (no people whatsoever)... Aiken's neighborhood improvement project has swept in and built a lot of cute starter homes in this neighborhood (Toole Hill) as well as others on the northside, and its awesome to see some new spinoff development occurring because of the city's investment! The plans are for the city to build more than 300 new homes on the northside at no profit, so I can't wait to see how much more they can transform the neighborhood... This development is suburban in nature, but it looks like it will be decently dense when developed. There's a lot more UC to the left of the photo, but I wanted to get the sign in the shot (200K+ in a recently ravaged neighborhood is pretty impressive to me)...

A couple shots from this weekend... The selective care facility on Walton Way. The Miller refurb. I saw some activity in there this weekend, but when I returned to take a photo it was all locked up again.. I'm still very excited about this one... An old, rotting canal or Augusta's next big neighborhood? If the library, courthouse, and res/retail come to life, this shot will look very different. The building on the left is a small portion of the Enterprise mill redevelopment (residential + "canal interpretive center"). And a random shot.... I.M. Pei penthouse or not, I still think the Lamar building is a beautiful structure.

^ Yep... Just check out todays chronicle... The Avenue developers are hoping to form more of a partnership with the Riverwatch developers... In related news, the Macys furniture store at Augusta mall will also be closing in July to make way for the construction of the expansion at the mall.

And just to dwell on Dadeland a little more, I'm much more impressed with these plans: than these: or worse yet, these: The redevelopment of Dadeland is truly in a different league and really should be viewed as a model of how to redevelop a former suburban wasteland. It is definately still ongoing, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it extend across the 826 in the future, and bring new pedestrian access points with it... There's already 2 bridge crossings at the mall over the Snapper Creek canal that was mentioned (one pedestrian and one car), and I wouldn't be surprised to see more once more Dadeland North developments are completed...

This is of course all a bit nit-picky, but "heavily urbanized" is just such a strong phrase. I agree with you about Miami too... Miami is NOT heavily urbanized, and many of the new projects aren't adding much to the total urbanity of the city (just the density)... The city just doesn't shine at street level yet... The only truly "heavily urbanized" (over a substantial area) location in Florida is South Beach, IMO. Expanding that to the entire south, I'd only add New Orleans, peninsular Charleston, and Savannah (the latter two furthering the example that tower density is not the deciding factor in urbanity)... I can't wait to see what Altamonte is becoming. To be honest, these projects aren't very visible through the vast surface lots from 436, so my statements on visibility and connectivity are coming from that perspective. The new urban Dadeland exists for a reason - the transit. It is a destination with tons of office space as well as tons of shopping. It makes perfect sense to dramatically increase the residential in the area, and the infrastructure is there to support it. I'm really just nervous that Altamonte is developing as an answer to Dadeland, but without the single factor that drives Dadeland.. the transit... Also missing is the substantial high-rise office space. There's plenty of Maitland/Lake Mary style crappy suburban office park buildings with huge surface lots planned, but the true live/work aspect is missing... Also, the walkability is extremely inconsistent, with some nice parts (downtown Altamonte) but quite a bit of dead spots (the surface parking and the ENTIRE Emerson development).. In short, this does not look to be developing into a sustainable, walkable, car-optional urban center. The good parts of these plans are reminiscent of Winter Park Village (which is mediocre at best, IMO), and the bad parts, well, really bad suburban development, but in highrise form... Of course, nothing would make me happier than for my rant to be proven wrong.

^ I agree with you Bic. I'm extremely happy to see Altamonte densifying, but dense does not necessarily equal urban. This is still an area that nearly everyone MUST drive to and from. From what I've seen, these denser developments do very little as far as overall connectivity at the street level. It's still a crappy street grid, and isolated, due to the surrounding sprawl. If you want to see a "good" example of creating an urban destination from suburban sprawl, look no further than Dadeland, in the Miami area: transit oriented, connected, very mixed-use, and much more urban in street interaction.

It is, as is the one in Aiken. He's talking about the Walmart Neighborhood Market concept, which is just a grocery store. Thusfar there are none of these in the area...

$120 million is a pretty exciting price tag for a new building. If I remember correctly, the original price tag for the proposed Judicial building was only $80 million, and they were envisioning a 20-story office building (which are taller than residentials with comparable floor counts). I really hope something big happens at this lot. The city is also considering the other disgusting eyesore on Reynolds St. (the dirt parking lot off of the Riverwalk) for convention space. These two lots are the best in the city IMO, and will really transform Reynolds St.

New article in the Chronicle about the Reynolds St Depot parcel. Seems like a Savannah-based developer has finally put in an official proposal. No rendering or height yet... http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/060206/met_83769.shtml $120 million project 160-180 condos Retaining features of the "historic" train depot, which has recently been granted $450,000 for renovation Average price of $400,000 per unit ( in DT Augusta?) 6.3 acre lot... which could water down the height a bit On an odd side note, I did the math, and selling 180 units at $400,000 a pop doesn't come anywhere close to recovering the $120,000,000 build cost... I wonder where the other income is factored in...

Awesome! I can't wait to check out some films at these theatres. The Miller refurb is one of the most exciting things happening right now in Augusta. If these are successful, it will be a great boost to the energy and reputation of downtown...

^ It seems like it would create a minor inconvience at most for drivers if that section of road closed... As long as a pedestrian plaza kept what little pedestrian access there already is between Magnolia and it's terminus at Orange, I'd be happy... Of course, if this becomes a monolithic structure that effectively dead ends the street for all uses, then that would be a bit more tragic...

^ Fenway is rediculous... I'll be in Boston this weekend, so I was researching Red Sox tickets about a month ago. The cheapest I could find were ~$70 apiece for standing-room-only (a month in advance vs. the Devil Rays)... Marlins tickets start from around $10-12 for same day purchases and Braves tickets can be bought for an absurd $4 same day... As much as I love baseball, it's clear that the southern markets are already overextended, especially compared to other areas of the country.

Well, according to the article, its a 6 acre site... That's a pretty large area, and I'd anticipate that they would try to use most of the site, meaning a shorter tower... Of course, depending on how they have to work around the train depot, it could result in an interesting design... The way I see it, they HAVE to put a tower there to enable river views. A sprawling 3-4 story structure would barely be able to see over the bluff and the riverwalk, so that wouldn't create very many units with water views... And I don't think it could be too tall either, since, like I said, 6 acres is a lot of land to build on in a downtown area...