The development of Accelerate Augusta, downtown’s upcoming entrepreneurial resource center, is finally underway.
Mayor Garnett Johnson, State Rep. Gary Richardson and Destination Augusta CEO Bennish Brown were among the crowd of local dignitaries and business leaders joined representatives from project partners Augusta Technical College and the Downtown Development Authority of Augusta (DDA) at the 600 Building on Broad Street, Tuesday morning, to celebrate the groundbreaking of Accelerate Augusta.
Construction of the facility began last week, with the former Augusta Metro Chamber building and its parking lot fenced off.
“I’m more excited about the businesses and the opportunists and the dreamers that are going to come to this facility,” said Mayor Johnson about the forthcoming microenterprise center. “Chasing the dream of being entrepreneurs, creating small businesses to continue strengthening our community.”
Both Augusta Tech President Jermaine Whirl and DDA executive director Margaret Woodward expressed gratitude to Sen. Raphael Warnock, who secured federal funding toward the microenterprise initiative in 2022. Both partners unveiled the center’s name last November, when the projected completion date for the renovation of the 600 building was the end of this year.
Woodard noted that rising construction costs has been a struggle for the development, and lauded Dickinson Architects and McKnight Construction for helping keep the undertaking within budget.
“We believe that this project will continue to be a project stimulator and have a huge halo effect in the downtown area,” said Woodard, lauding the business leaders who comprise the committee helping focus the vision for the endeavor.
Building the center will consist of two phases: the renovation of the building at 600 Broad St., and the refurbishing of nearby storefront properties into space for budding business owners coming through the Accelerate program.
Whirl mentioned that Accelerate Augusta is now searching for its executive director who, once selected, will go on to hire the facility’s faculty.
The Augusta Tech president also noted that Sen. Warnock’s vision was to aid small business ventures, particularly for minorities and veterans.
“We felt like Augusta was a perfect place to do that,” Whirl said. “You’ve got Fort Eisenhower, we have a lot of minority individuals in Richmond County in particular, and so we just checked all the boxes.”
Construction of Accelerate Augusta is now expected to be complete in January 2025, and operational within the first quarter of the year.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
