Entertainment complex will boost Augusta

How exciting it was to see the Tour de Georgia cyclists! It was much like the excitement surrounding the Masters Tournament, not to mention the economic boon to our area. What if we could show you a way to increase property values, generate additional sales tax and SPLOST dollars, and at the same time create the same type of excitement that is felt during the Masters and the Tour de Georgia? And what if we could do this 10-12 times a year, every year? And, as a bonus, we put Augusta on the map as being the cutting-edge innovative community that we can be?

Introducing the James Brown Metroplex.

CSRA HELP/Citizens Action Committee has prepared a proposal to build a lifestyle and entertainment center in the heart of Augusta. We are proposing that this project be funded using a combination of revenue bonds, general obligation bonds, SPLOST and private dollars. By taking a four-tier approach to funding this project, we feel we will drive down the cost to the community, and expand the project at the same time. This lifestyle and entertainment center will be in the heart of Augusta, so that during events, all businesses equally will have a fair shot at the tourism and revenue dollars coming into our area, as opposed to locating it at River Watch Parkway and Interstate 20.

The project is to be called the James Brown Metroplex. It will resemble the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville, S.C. To explain the concep, imagine a mall with a civic center in the middle. We are proposing that it be built large enough to put us on the map and attract name-brand, top-notch entertainment, retail businesses and restaurants. We feel Augusta is the perfect location to attract such entertainment. Augusta is positioned along what is called the Entertainment Corridor; acts perform on Southern tours in Birmingham, Ala.; Columbia, S.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; and now Augusta.

With our population (the metropolitan statistical area) of more than 400,000 people and with existing venues, we feel this is a profitable enterprise requiring no subsidies, unlike the Augusta-Richmond County Civic Center. The committee is adamant, and opposes any effort to allow the Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority to manage this new profitable facility. We have several management proposals under consideration from leading management firms that keep businesses by making a profit for the facility owner.

The Citizens Action Committee, along with Augusta Commissioner Andy Cheek, are sponsoring a bus trip to the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville on May 13. We are inviting a cross-section of the community to view what we are calling Augusta's future. The name of the trip is "See the Dream."

We hope that everyone in Augusta will see the James Brown Metroplex as an engine that will spawn economic growth for all of Augusta.

WE FEEL THAT this project is much needed, and long past due. It will create jobs, stimulate economic growth, appreciate land values and create additional revenue. From the beginning the Citizens Action Committee has stated that we are against tax increases. We are searching for some common ground to reduce the cost of such a project. We are proposing compromise.

The commissioners are steadfast that they want any type of entertainment complex funded with bonds, and bonds only. If we do not build and support such an entertainment complex, it will go to Columbia County - and so will the revenue it will generate. Let me reiterate: it will go to Columbia County. Our community desperately needs an exciting, fun and profitable project.

What Augusta needs is the James Brown Metroplex, a lifestyle and entertainment center, and the revenue it will produce time after time, year after year. The ancillary benefits for a project such as this are endless. Look no further than North Augusta and The River Golf Club to see how a new project can create an economic boon.

We are meeting with commissioners and business leaders again to push this project forward. So we march on.

(Editor's note: The writer is chairman of CSRA Help/Citizens Action Committee.)