Two buildings, known as HUB East and HUB West, were opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony on June 25, just 14 months after the April 6, 2021 groundbreaking.
The two buildings are phase one of the project, being built on 15th Street and bordered by Chafee Avenue.
A $10 million gift in November 2020 from the Augusta National Golf Club, in association with AT&T, Bank of America and IBM, provided the initial money for the design and construction which was augmented by federal grants and private donations.
A coalition of organizations, including the MCG Foundation, Boys and Girls Club of Greater Augusta and the Community Foundation, guided the process leading to the development of the project dedicated to serving the community, particularly the Harrisburg and Laney-Walker neighborhoods.
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“Community members in our downtown core who haven’t had access to things like healthy food, or health care that they can afford, or educational supports in and outside their home, will have access to those things free, with as many barriers as removed as possible. And the hope is that we can help lift up these communities so that they can lift themselves up,” said Community Foundation President and CEO Shell Berry.
The Boys and Girls Club, which has outgrown its administrative space on Milledge Road and its club on Division Street, will occupy 16,000 square feet in HUB East.
“Although these buildings were both built in record time, I keep hearing people saying that we still did not escape the production delays and shipping delays caused by COVID. So, you’ll see some empty spaces in the buildings, but you can use your imagination,” said club CEO Kim Evans.
The other building, 33,000 square feet on the western side of Chafee Avenue known as HUB West, will be the new home of Augusta Locally Grown, the Augusta University Literacy Center, Harrisburg Family Health Care and RISE Augusta (formerly known as Communities in Schools).
The HUB is just a mile away from another major project, announced on June 22. The former Johnson Motor Company on Walton Way near 11th Street will be transformed in a 65,000 square foot automotive skills training facility for Augusta Technical College.
The Augusta National Golf Club also contributed $1 million to that project along with a matching contribution from Jim Hudson Lexus of Augusta.
“And it certainly is a part of us building an infrastructure of educational supports across the entire lifecycle. And these projects are just the beginning of our collective at the HUB. Augusta collaboratives’ collective commitment to these neighborhoods, that we will go where the neighborhoods need us to go,” Berry said.
While the money from the Community Foundation kicked the development of the HUB into high gear, the seed for the project was planted in 1997.
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The HUB is built on the site of a former Kroger shopping center. It was originally the home of WBBQ AM and FM, before the stations moved to Georgia Avenue in North Augusta.
George Weiss, owner of Savannah Valley Broadcasting which included the property on 15th Street, donated the property and radio stations, which had grown to include WZNY FM, to the Medical College of Georgia Foundation when he died in December 1997. The bequest had an estimated value of $10 million.
“George Weiss was an amazing gentleman,” said Ian Mercier, president and CEO of the Medical College of Georgia Foundation. “We used to see him drive around with all the antennas sticking off of his car. He gave everything to this university. It had a lot to do with the fact that he was a cancer patient. And he went to MCG, and they took care of him. So, it was his gift to give back. I know for a fact that Mr. Weiss was about this community.”
When the grocery store closed in 2017, it created a food desert. Mercier said one of the coalition’s next responsibilities will be to attract a grocery store to the area.
The buildings will be open Saturday, June 25 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. for a community celebration.
For more information, and a complete listing of the Grand Opening schedule, visit https://communityhubaugusta.org/
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a general assignment reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
Managing Editor Charmain Z. Brackett contributed to this story.
