Business View Magazine - October 2018

164 165 Beautiful spaces that perform Architect for Columbia County Performing Arts Center Learn more at cgdarch.com COLUMBIA COUNTY, GEORGIA nuclear power plant that is currently under ex- pansion. A lot of the construction workers, there, and the people who will be there, long-term, will, again, choose to call Columbia County, home.” As a result of the county’s longstanding popu- lation boom, Johnson reports that there are a lot of infrastructure projects in the works, many of which are supported by voter-approved sales tax increases. “We have a one penny sales tax that’s completely dedicated to transportation; then we have another one penny sales tax that’s dedi- cated to special purpose, local projects,” Johnson explains. “We currently have, on the books, nearly $500 million in projects - $240 million of that is in transportation that has already been slated for the next five or six years. The rest of that money is for other projects that we’re going to do.We have a lot of parks, now- some under construc- tion, some under design; we’re expanding our greenway trails to be able to connect the County from one side to the other; we’re doing a lot of renovations to some of our older buildings; we’re expanding our justice center which is part of our courthouse because of our growing population; and we’re planning some parking decks in our more populated areas.” The county also recently embarked upon a public-private partnership with a local develop- er, Meybohm Commercial Properties, to build a downtown concept called The Plaza, on 26 acres in the heart of Evans that’s owned by the coun- ty. The Plaza will be a mixed-use development, comprised of six buildings covering 150,000 square feet - a combination of professional offices, restaurants, and retail. The complex will be an- chored by a new, $30 million, 2,300-seat Perform- ing Arts Center that the county is building as part of the partnership. County officials are also con- sidering an open-air space for a farmers market and a playground at the back of the property that will double as space for additional parking when needed. The entire project will be connected by a promenade, with the Performing Arts Center as the focus. “It’s an interesting concept,” Johnson remarks. “Evans, itself, is not a city– it’s part of unincor- porated Columbia County. Our two small cities are located on the western end of the county, and are a little farther away from our population base. So, it’s pretty unique as far as designing and building our own downtown in an unincorporated area over one that is extremely populated and well-visited.” “We worked out a deal in phases,” Johnson con- tinues. “So, in Phase One, they’re building three separate buildings.We worked with our Economic Development Authority to deed the land over to them to let them do all the improvements; the developer put in all the infrastructure – all the water, all the sewer, all the parking lots, and all the green space, which will be deeded back over to the county as a common area between the buildings. The developer is also doing the verti- cal construction and once they finish that, they’re going to deed everything outside of their physical footprint back to the county.” “That’s beneficial to both parties,” Johnson maintains. “It’s beneficial to them in that they don’t have to maintain the parking lots and the public areas and the landscape. Therefore, they