In this bleak economy, Augusta has one of Georgia's few city centers where revitalization keeps chugging along, downtown proponents and developers say.

Sherwin Loudermilk, the president of Atlanta-based Horizon Group Investments and developer of The White's Building, said his company is looking for more old buildings to renovate into retail-residential space. Among the state's large cities, Augusta and Columbus are the only two with downtowns growing in terms of construction and remodeling, he said.

"It's the right time for Augusta," Mr. Loudermilk said.

The White's Building is bringing new residents to Broad Street in downtown's first multimillion-dollar condo project since the Port Royal high-rise opened in 1991. A California developer plans to turn the former Woolworth's building into retail space and lofts. A new hotel is in the works near the Augusta Common, and a Jamaican restaurant and an organic grocery store are coming to Broad Street, Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Margaret Woodard said.

Special purpose local option sales tax projects are helping, too. A groundbreaking for the new library is scheduled Sept. 22, and City Administrator Fred Russell said construction of the judicial center could start before year's end.

"I'd say the progress is significant," Mayor Deke Copenhaver said, "and one thing that's exciting is that this is happening in the midst of a difficult national economy."

According to figures compiled by the development authority, private investment in downtown rose from $7.9 million in 2006 to $17.3 million in 2007. Last year saw net gains of 73 new businesses and 192 jobs.

While the large-scale Watermark project has been pushed back because of a sour housing market, smaller ventures keep cropping up, and it's the small businesses that have had most to do with reviving downtown, Soul Bar co-owner Coco Rubio said.

"Right now, I think the good things outweigh the bad things," he said of downtown's progress.

THE WATERMARK

The bad economy has made this ambitious plan much tougher, and the developer of the $100 million office-condominium-hotel-retail project along the Savannah River -- a centerpiece of downtown redevelopment on prime, city-owned real estate -- is not talking..

Harry Kitchen, the president of Bluffton, S.C.-based The Foxfield Co., wrote last week in an e-mail that he did not want to discuss his plans with The Chronicle anymore because he didn't like a July article about The Watermark's status.

In previous interviews, however, Mr. Kitchen was firm that The Watermark would be built, but proceeding as the market dictates. With the housing market in shambles and financing hard to come by, he said he was putting off the condo component to focus on the office building, for which he had yet to find an anchor tenant.

Last year, Mr. Kitchen planned to start construction this fall, but he still hasn't purchased the property.

Mr. Kitchen stated previously that his overall plans call for a 150-room hotel, a 62,000-square-foot office building, 100 condos, the Reynolds Street train depot renovated into retail space and a four-story parking garage.

MAGNOLIA ALLEY

Envisioned as benefiting from proximity to The Watermark, the renovation project on the 500 block of Broad Street has been on hold since its Atlanta investors backed out, according to Kelley New, one of three partners in Design Concepts.

Plans for the cluster of buildings next to the Augusta Museum of History parking lot included a cooperative produce market, studio space for artisans, three to six one-bedroom apartments, a courtyard and a trendy restaurant. Work on the $2 million undertaking was to start in April, but Mr. New said the partnership is looking for someone to invest about $800,000 to get it off the ground.

THE WHITE'S BUILDING

The first resident of The White's Building, a $9 million mixed-use renovation of the old J.B. White department store on Broad Street, moved into her condominium in July. Ten of the building's second-floor condos have sold for prices of $99,900 to $259,000, and contracts are pending for a handful of other units, developer Sherwin Loudermilk said. Tenants for the first-floor retail space are on the way. The sheriff's substation should move in within the next week, he said. Talks are ongoing to add a hair salon and a vintage clothing store, Mr. Loudermilk said.

BASEBALL STADIUM

A major hurdle stands in the way of bringing minor league baseball downtown -- convincing Gov. Sonny Perdue and the state government to give the city 17 acres of riverfront property, including the former Georgia Golf Hall of Fame Botanical Gardens.

"It's very difficult to plan for land that you don't own," Mayor Deke Copenhaver said.

Tossing the proposal around, the Georgia State Properties Commission has posted a request for information to find out whether any developers are interested. Mr. Copenhaver said he, Ripkin Baseball, Jacoby Development Inc. and the Downtown Stadium Exploratory Committee will submit their response this month.

Economic conditions could make this one tough, too, the mayor conceded.

He estimates a developer would have to put up about $10 million -- $6 million for the city's sales tax investments and $3.5 million for the state's bonded indebtedness, plus environmental cleanup costs. That's why a public-private partnership would work best, defraying some of those costs for a prospective developer, Mr. Copenhaver said.

The total cost is estimated at $31.8 million.

ELLIS STREET CANAL

Former Commissioner Andy Cheek's proposal for a canal extension running through two miles of downtown stirred imaginations last year. But the project's death blow came when estimates for underground utility relocation jacked the estimated price from $50 million up to $100 million to $150 million, Mr. Cheek said.

A 10-year projection inflating the cost to $300 million didn't help, either, he said. Before he left office, he couldn't garner enough commission votes to fund a feasibility study. "The political powers that be are pretty much against it, so yeah, it's dead," Mr. Cheek said.

NEW LIBRARY

Prospects seemed grim this spring, with a tiff over architecture and the city still not controlling all the land it needs. But now groundbreaking on the $24 million Greene Street library is two weeks away, and Library Director Gary Swint said it should be open in June 2010.

At one time, its opening was projected to happen this year, but it took time to acquire all the parcels needed on the site across James Brown Boulevard from the current library. In June, the Augusta Historic Preservation Commission signed off on revisions to the library's design after initially rejecting it.

TEE CENTER

Though it was once expected to be finished in 2010, City Administrator Fred Russell said he can no longer put a timetable on the Reynolds Street trade, exhibit and event center.

Voters approved spending $20 million on it in a 2005 sales tax referendum, but a contentious Augusta Commission didn't approve it until August 2007, after a deal was worked out for $750,000 in hotel occupancy fees to go toward revitalizing neglected historic neighborhoods.

The project hit another snag over the summer when the architect backed out of the contracting team, saying the TEE center can't be built for $20 million, but rather an estimated $40 million.

The architect has since come back on board, and Mr. Russell said he plans to have the contract on the commission agenda within the next two weeks. The TEE center's design, price and timetable are still being worked out.