The Augusta Coliseum Authority got an update on the demolition of the James Brown Arena to make way for the upcoming Augusta Entertainment Complex during its meeting, Tuesday afternoon, in the BMW Room of the Bell Auditorium.
After structural demolition of the arena, which began last fall, workers are to begin backfilling and compaction, followed by utility installations, explained Jon Rawlins, project manager with Nations Group, the firm working with the city to develop the new arena.
“We have a special specialty consultant that’s going to go out and actually test to see how compacted it is before you can put the foundations on, so you do the actual building pad for the new arena that’s going to be out there,” said Rawlins.
The structural demolition, including the box offices still standing as of the writing of this article, should be completed in the next three to four weeks, Rawlins said, before the roughly 45-day settlement process of refilling the excavated areas.
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“You’re going to see a bunch of trucks just pouring and compacting dirt and then leveling it, and that’s it,” said Rawlins, before installing a new, rerouted sanitary and waterline and later—Rawlings estimates by the coming fall—going vertical, or begin building the new arena’s structure from the ground up. “You start with all the underground work, then you work your way up from the building, and you go to the very top… Once everything’s erected, then you start to do the inside of the building.”
The Bell Auditorium is currently operating under its budget for fiscal year 2025, noted Augusta Entertainment Complex general manager Brian Martin to the Authority, as the venue’s event schedule was offset by Hurricane Helene.
“Back in October we took a major hit when it comes to event load, and we lost quite a few events, probably one of our biggest spots of the year,” said Martin. “So now what we’re doing is working hard on the backside of the year to make up for those events, adding more content to the facility to ensure that we catch up on budget.”
Those efforts have yielded promising events so far this year, Martin also noted during the meeting, including Alice Cooper’s Too Close for Comfort Tour, which also earned the Bell more revenue via rehearsal space; the Tennessee Theatre Company’s Aesop’s Fable, and the Augusta Blues Festival.
The Bell hosted the Augusta Metro Chamber’s Mega Mixer event, last June, during which CSRA area chambers of commerce convened to see the renewed venue’s facilities.
“I think we were able to get more events booked because of that,” Martin said. “People have more interest in the facility, obviously, seeing the new renovations and all the expansion done here. So people are getting excited about it.”
Skyler Andrews is a reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
