The walls of empty downtown stores could come tumbling down to make way for a grass-covered mall and a pair of tree-lined streets once Augusta's Health Department moves from 843 Broad St.
Five buildings on Broad Street and one facing Reynolds Street will make way for the mall and a pedestrian walkway designed to link shopping and sightseeing in the city's center. The city has already determined their value so it can buy them or condemn them if property owners refuse to sell, City Administrator Randy Oliver said.
The Augusta Commission decided Monday to hold a public hearing on the project, although voters already approved $2 million from the local sales tax to pay for work between Broad and Reynolds. Additional money will be needed to demolish the S.S. Kresge building between Broad and Ellis Street and to develop the mall on the river side of Reynolds, according to Bob Kuhar, an architect for Morris Communications Corp., who contributed drawings as a member of the Augusta Commons committee.
Commissioners told Augusta Commons committee members Monday that questions about property for the new health department building could delay the commons project as much as two years, according to Bill Thompson, president of SunTrust Bank in Augusta and a member of the committee.
``The general idea is to connect the Riverwalk with Broad Street,'' Mr. Thompson said.
Wednesday, planners for the project outlined recent changes in the project during a meeting with Main Street Augusta. The refined plans call for adding roads along the sides of the grassy mall between Reynolds and Broad streets, adding a pedestrian walkway between Broad and Ellis Street, and slightly reducing the size of the grassy mall between Reynolds and the Savannah River.
Adding the roads will help draw shoppers from the Riverwalk to Broad Street when it's too hot to walk and give them more on-street parking, according to Mr. Kuhar. The walkway will give better access to a public parking deck on Ellis Street, he said.
The narrowed grassy mall was designed to offer more definition of the mall, he said. ``We wanted to look at this as if it's an outdoor room,'' he said.
Mr. Kuhar said his committee hopes to spur activity along the commons two ways. First, opening up the mall will create storefronts where buildings had been. Building owners can divide their large stores into smaller stores facing the mall, making them more affordable for smaller retailers, he said.
Second, the committee is trying to urge local colleges to set up classrooms along the mall to ensure young people will use the area.
Ordinances controlling the architecture along the Riverwalk would not apply to the buildings along the commons more than 200 feet from Reynolds Street, according to George Patty, executive director of the Augusta-Richmond County Planning Commission. But Main Street Augusta Chairman Pen Mayson said his group would lobby for the controls to be extended.
Main Street is also dusting off old plans to dress up existing alleys between Broad and Reynolds, Mr. Mayson said. ``It would be a low-cost thing, we think, because we are not talking about property acquisition.''
He also said Main Street had urged the Augusta Commission to renew its program offering grants to building owners who refurbish their facades. The grants could be helpful in getting them to open up attractive storefronts once their buildings are exposed to the new streets, he said.
