Anyone hoping for a sign of change at one of downtown’s largest vacant buildings is about to get one. A big one.
Like, huge.
The folks over at Jordan Trotter Commercial Real Estate are asking city officials for approval to drape a 608-square-foot banner over the front of the old J.C. Penney building at 732 Broad St.
The building’s longtime owner, Augusta businesswoman Bonnie Ruben, has hired the firm’s wunderkinds to market the 83,000-square-foot building that has been empty for more than 30 years.
A building that massive, apparently, needs a massive for sale/for lease sign to let everyone know it’s on the market, which is likely the reason the real estate firm has asked the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals for permission to place a 76-foot by 8-foot banner across the building’s currently plywood-covered facade.
City ordinances cap temporary signs at 40 square feet for 30 days, hence the request scheduled to go before the board Aug. 19.
If I were a betting man, my money would be on a majority “yes” vote from the 12-member body. I would think members would be thrilled to see Ruben do something other than allow unabated deterioration to take a toll.
Nearly all downtown structures are within the Broad Street Historic District, but the J.C. Penney building is more historic than most.
Built in 1900 as The Albion Hotel, the structure’s existing footprint was shaped by a 1921 fire that destroyed the the center and west portions of what was once a U-shaped building.
The damaged sections of the building were never rebuilt, and a one-block street – Albion Avenue – was laid out when the block was rebuilt. Today, that avenue is blocked to vehicle traffic. The Albion’s former west wing was redeveloped in 1923 as the eight-story Richmond Hotel, which has been the Richmond Summit – a subsidized 125-unit apartment complex – since 1979.
The Albion became the Penney department store in 1958, which it remained until 1987 when the retailer moved into a new big-box addition at Augusta Mall.
Ruben is certainly not downtown Augusta’s only mothballed-property mogul, but she is arguably its most enduring.
That’s because the owner of Ruben’s Department Store – founded 120 years ago by grandparents Max and Rebecca Ruben – never left downtown after Augusta’s suburban shopping malls opened in 1978. (Although it should be noted Ruben’s did operate a satellite location in the now-defunct Regency Mall.)
“I always liked downtown the best,” Ruben told a Chronicle reporter years ago. “We stayed downtown because we are committed.”
The retail exodus of the late 1970s and 1980s gave Ruben an opportunity to snap up what was left behind on Broad Street, including the Davison’s Department Store and H.L. Green buildings (which she sold for $700,000 in 2002 to the Richmond County Board of Education), the Kress Department Store on the 800 block (vacant since 1980) and the “Bayou” building on the 900 block (vacant since gutted by a fire in 2001). She bought the J.C. Penney building in 1988 for $150,000.
Ruben purchased the 200-room Ramada hotel on the 600 block in 1989, which she still operates along with her namesake department store on the 900 block.
The mere fact Ruben has hired one of the region’s most high-profile commercial real estate firms to market the largest of her vacant properties is noteworthy in and of itself. The big sign that could be draped across the old J.C. Penney building in time for downtown’s Arts in the Heart festival is actually a sign that – nearly two decades into downtown’s revival – Ruben is serious about taking part in the renaissance.
If her intention was to hold onto vacant buildings, she made a big mistake hiring the Jordan Trotter firm; this is the brokerage that helped bring Unisys, BioScrip, BestLawyers and SharedSpace to downtown Augusta.
Right about here is where I’d give Ruben the opportunity to talk about her motivations, her aspirations and her affinity for downtown Augusta.
But that’s not going to happen. Not today, anyway. Ruben has made it clear she is not doing interviews.
I can only assume the reticence stems from decades of criticism – including from yours truly – about the state of her properties and the less-than-positive impact they’ve had on downtown revitalization efforts. Although the barbs in this column over the years pale in comparison to the bombardment she’s received in the blogosphere and on social media, I can understand her position.
But the criticisms – from the equitable to the excessive – have always been rooted in reality: Ruben does own many prominent downtown buildings. Most of these buildings are dilapidated (so much that some have made Historic Augusta’s “endangered properties” list). And Ruben has done almost nothing during the past quarter-century to rehabilitate, renovate or revitalize these buildings, nor has she taken reasonable steps to sell or lease them to those who can.
Until now.
Ruben said in a statement issued by Jordan Trotter that she realizes “the significance some of my buildings have on landscape of downtown.”
“We are going to start with the J.C. Penney Building and find the right fit. I appreciate the history of Broad Street and want to put life back into our downtown,” she said. “I trust the team at Jordan Trotter Commercial Real Estate and know with their hard work and knowledge of the business and far-reaching client base that they will find the right tenant.”
If this is indeed a new era for a major downtown stakeholder whose connection to Broad Street runs three generations deep, I believe her critics should wholeheartedly put the past behind them and welcome the future.
I certainly plan to.
IT’S TECHNET TIME AGAIN: That big ol’ banner might be out in time for the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association’s annual TechNet conference later this month at the Augusta Marriott at the Convention Center.
Every major player in the Army’s electronic warfare domain will be downtown from Aug. 19-23 to take part in the defensapalooza event that, according to the Augusta Convention & Visitors Bureau estimates, will attract at least 3,600 visitors and pump about $3.48 million into the local tourism economy.
With this year’s theme being “Combined Arms Maneuver in Cyberspace: Building the Multi Domain Force,” the AFCEA event will be a mixer where defense industry experts, government contractors and leaders of Fort Gordon’s U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence can talk shop.
“Shop,” in this case, being everything from emerging technologies to procurement to federal budgets.
MOVING OUT AND UP: Many of those TechNet attendees will undoubtedly end up milling around the Georgia Cyber Center, located just a hop, skip and a jump from the convention center. There, they will find the new offices of the CSRA Alliance for Fort Gordon, which is moving out of the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce space in the adjacent Augusta Riverfront Center office building at 1 10th St.
The Cyber Center announced this past week the Alliance has become the newest “resident partner and tenant” at the Hull McKnight Building, one of the two identical offices at the Nathan Deal Campus for Innovation. The Alliance’s mission, in case you forgot, is to help stimulate economic growth in the seven-county Fort Gordon Cyber District by acting as the main liaison between the region and the installation’s growing cyber and intelligence missions.
You may have heard the Alliance’s cyber-education initiative was recently named 2018-2019 CyberPatriot Center of Excellence of the Year by the Air Force Association’s National Youth Cyber Education Program.
And, if you’ve been around town for a while, you may recall the Alliance was originally founded in 2003 to help keep Fort Gordon off the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (known as BRAC) list. Mission accomplished, and then some. What a difference a decade can make, eh?
“For the past 16 years, the Alliance has done a magnificent job forging the strong partnerships needed to make our region better and more secure,” Cyber Center Executive Director Eric Toler said in a news release, adding that the groups tenancy will help “collectively foster the relationships between Fort Gordon, other government entities, academia and the private sector.”
Alliance Director Tom Clark said the organization was “beyond excited to relocate” to the Cyber Center, and he thanked the chamber for housing the organization since its inception.
DOWN WIT’ OTT?: Alison South Marketing Group this past week announced it has acquired Martinez-based digital marketing firm On the Level Digital to expand its suite of ones- and zeros-based services.
The acquisition boosts Alison South’s staff by two and allows the firm to offer digital packages that include SEO (search engine optimization), PPC (pay-per-click advertising), OTT (over the top; i.e., streamed media advertising) and geo-fencing services.
That’s a lot of alphabet soup, but that’s the future.
“The world of digital marketing is growing, and we are excited to grow along with it,” Alison South CEO Mike Thomas said. “This is a great opportunity for us to be able to offer more digital services to existing and new clients.”
On the Level Digital owner John Pope, well-versed in Google PageRank Algorithm and the RankBrain Artificial Intelligence, will join Alison South as the director of SEO and PPC. Trey Blanton, who worked as a digital sales manager for media companies such as Time Warner and Meredith Corp., will serve as Alison South’s vice president of digital marketing.
Alison South, formed by the 2016 merger of Aiken-based South Company and Augusta’s Alison Group, employs 30 people in Augusta, Aiken and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
FAR BEYOND DRIVEN: Here’s a little tidbit you might find surprising (or not) – the three most-driven cars in the Augusta area are all full-size SUVs.
That’s what iSeeCars.com’s analysis of more than 2.3 million car sales of 10-year-old cars shows. The online automotive search engine and research website says the vehicle that logs the most miles in Augusta is a GMC Yukon XL, followed by a Chevrolet Suburban and a Chevrolet Tahoe.
The top five is rounded out by the Chevrolet Impala sedan and the Honda Odyssey minivan. The website’s analysis shows the average American vehicle logs 11,987 miles a year, but that Yukons in Augusta see an average of 16,130, or 22 percent more miles.
In case you’re wondering what the least-driven decade-old vehicle in America is, it’s a Chevrolet Corvette convertible.
That one doesn’t surprise me a bit.
Reach Damon Cline at (706) 823-3352 or [email protected].