At 30 years old, Armstrong Galleria is getting a facelift.
The Augusta Commission last week approved spending $500,000 to begin improving the facade of the Laney-Walker Boulevard shopping center.
The Community Development Block Grant funds will go toward the purchase of “materials only,” such as doors, windows, signage, awnings, light fixtures and planters.
The Laney Walker Development Corp., a tenant in the complex long involved in the Laney-Walker/Bethlehem redevelopment effort, is expected to work with S.D. Clifton Construction to acquire the materials, according to a contract with the city.
Augusta has awarded facade grants to aging and historic structures for decades to revitalize downtown businesses.
The mall, named for City Councilwoman Margaret Armstrong, opened around 1993 with specially-engraved bricks and a Gurley’s Supermarket.
Phase 2, which is not part of the facade improvement, opened in 2003 with a Family Dollar and a beauty supply store.
Augusta owns the south-facing storefronts, such as beauty and barber shops, a laundromat and the development corporation office, but not the former Gurley’s.
The storefronts facing east and west, such as a florist and nightclub, restaurant and clothing storefronts are privately owned.
The former Penny Savings Bank, owned by the Augusta Georgia Land Bank Authority, forms the southern end of the strip mall.
CWW Group Inc., named for former Sen. Charles W. Walker Sr., obtained the former Shoe’s Place and another east-facing storefront from the land bank in early 2020 for $32,000, according to prior Augusta Press reports.
The city appraised the two buildings that year for around $116,000.
