Business View Magazine | February 2019

317 to Augusta,which is a major population center.We needed to bring something to our community that created a density that could support the types of things that we wanted. So,we created a project that would give us the density for the things that we really wanted,which was the retail and the restau- rants.” The density that the City sought found its solution in the construction of a minor league baseball sta- dium, funded by the city,which, in its first year drew almost 300,000 people to the area.The Augusta GreenJackets, a Class A affiliate of the San Fran- cisco Giants, now play at the new SRP Park,which opened last April.“So, that’s howwe designed our Riverfront Project,” says Glover.“And it’s been a fan- tastic draw for the City. By having that minor league baseball stadium,we were able to get restaurants to surround it by the population density we created coming to the games.” More private sector development ensued, includ- ing a 180-room Crown Plaza Hotel and Conference Center, three parking decks, and coming online, this year, a 150,000-sq.-ft, Class A office building, some additional restaurants, and retail with some live- above condo units.“We also have two neighbor- hoods surrounding this development,”Glover adds. “One is Hammond’s Ferry, a planned development with what they call a ‘traditional neighborhood design,’where the homes are very close together and that looks very ‘Charlestonesque.’The plan is for that to be about 400 homes; there are about 150 in there, right now, and they’re building out at a good clip.On the other side,we have Riverside Village, a 35-acre multi-use development. So,when all is said and done, there’ll be about 1,000 living units mixed in with this residential/office, live-work-and-play community.” Glover adds that the City structured the entire proj- L I V E . W O R K . P L A Y . THE EVENT DEST INAT ION ON THE RI VER .