Officials called Tuesday’s groundbreaking of the new arena a testament of hard work, perseverance and collaboration.
“I’m overwhelmed with joy, overwhelmed with the fact that we were able to get together and get something done. That’s not always the case in Augusta,” said Cedric Johnson, Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority chairman.
The effort to get a new arena to the groundbreaking phase took a decade that Brad Usry called a “rollercoaster ride.”
It reminded Usry, who is the new arena committee chairman, of his college basketball days, where he was the hero on one day and the benchwarmer the next.
“It was frustrating, but we never lost faith,” he said. “We knew the community – at the right time – would unite around this project.”
The 10-story tall, three football fields wide arena, will connect to the Bell Auditorium, which recently marked its grand opening ribbon cutting from its renovations.
Read previous stories: Bell Auditorium opens ‘on time’ and ‘on budget’
But the ribbon cutting for the new facility won’t be for several years.
“This is a huge project,” Johnson said.
Demolition of the current facility is scheduled to begin within the next few weeks, but Johnson doesn’t have an exact date yet. Construction is expected to take about three years.
Usry said it’s the largest project in the city’s history, providing 600 permanent jobs, a $1.6 billion economic impact in direct, indirect and induced spending with 40% of the construction special purpose local option sales tax paid by people outside of Richmond County.
“This moment reminds me of what’s possible in Augusta,” he said.
Local people will work on the building’s construction. J&B Construction of Grovetown and McKnight Construction, which was also part of the Bell Auditorium, will be involved with the new arena project.
Johnson said having local people involved was important because many times, in major projects, that’s not the case.
To learn more about the new arena project, go here.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years and is a Georgia Press Association award winner. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
