Augusta Technical College and the Downtown Development Authority of Augusta (DDA) announced the launching of their microenterprise center and business incubator, Thursday afternoon, at the building at the Hub Building at 600 Broad St.
Accelerate Augusta will be the name of the new facility, an initiative by the DDA to support local startups, particularly those downtown, by establishing a core resource hub for promising entrepreneurs.
Margaret Woodard, executive director of the DDA, met with Augusta Tech President Jermaine Whirl in December of 2021 to discuss a partnership to develop the incubator.
“In 2020, when the COVID pandemic threatened to derail communities around the world, it was estimated that 35% of small businesses and new startups would not survive the pandemic,” said Woodard. “As we started working with these small businesses, it became very evident that there was not a centralized location for all the resources to help these budding businesses get started in good times, or bad.”
In 2022, the partners successfully applied for congressionally directed special appropriations funding, and were awarded $2.3 million to build the microenterprise center through the advocacy of U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.).
The collaborators then entered into a 20-year lease agreement with the city to use the 600 Building as the site of Accelerate Augusta, which will entail renovations scheduled to begin in January.
The programs offered by the facility will be drawn from focus groups conducted by Augusta Tech and the DDA, in which small businesses visited the school’s campus to discuss their needs, noted Whirl.
Offerings will include “micro sprints,” four-to-eight-week intensive training programs in various areas – such as finance, marketing, legal issues and human resources; consultations, networking and mentorship with various professionals and experts; and events to showcase products.
There will even be opportunities for new businesses owners to competitively pitch their ideas to potential investors in a setting reminiscent of the TV series “Shark Tank.”
Whirl also emphasized the impact the new incubator will have on the Broad Street corridor, potentially filling its several vacant storefronts with thriving new enterprises, saying revitalizing downtown business is the “focal point.”
“People really want to fill these storefronts. They’ve got ideas, restaurants, retail… but they just don’t have a fundamental foundation on how to start it,” Whirl said. “To have this right here, we can train folks right here to be able to get in and repurpose these storefronts. That’s going to create a vibrant downtown, that’s going to create an atmosphere everyone will want to be a part of.”
The 600 building is also known as the “Old Chamber Building,” as it was the headquarters of the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce from 1978 to 2010. The structure was designed by renowned architect I.M. Pei, who also designed the Lamar Building penthouse and the James Brown Arena.
The DDA is looking to have construction of the project complete by the end of 2024.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
