Steven Kendrick spoke on south Augusta’s economic development prospects for the proposed Regency Mall project at a town hall meeting he held at the Diamond Lakes Community Center Monday evening.
“I really want this for Augusta,” said the former Augusta tax commissioner, referring to a project proposed by Cardinale Management, the owners of the Regency Mall property, to redevelop the site into a planned unit development that includes, among other things, apartments, a fitness center, a grocery store and a school. “You should, too. And this should not be the type of thing that people can move us from because they’re not believers in the vision. Every time something comes up that could be positive, we find ways to tear it down. And I’m a believer that this can work.”
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On May 30, Kendrick publicly announced that Cardinale Management submitted the project to Augusta Planning and Zoning, and that he had been in talks with the Cardinale family about the project for about a year. On Monday, Kendrick gave a presentation at the town hall emphasizing that economic development in south Augusta primarily requires “more people” to bring more money to attract other retailers and developers.
Early during the town hall meeting, Kendrick identified Robert Buchwitz, chairman of the Hephzibah City Commission, as the person who introduced him to the Regency Mall project, and proceeded to invite Buchwitz to speak before the audience.
“I can tell you that this project is real,” said Buchwitz, who is also the chairman of the governing board of the Georgia School of Innovation and the Classics, a K-12 charter school in Hephzibah that first opened in 2015. “These people have 9 million square feet of retail space on the east coast of the United States. They have the funds to do this. They don’t need the government to come in and build this project for them. They don’t need you the taxpayers.”
Buchwitz went on to say Cardinale was putting “$150 million” into the Regency Mall redevelopment, called Cardinal Town Square, and that “they’re looking at about a $400 to $500 million project.”
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Kendrick did not confirm those numbers, saying Buchwitz hadn’t told him those amounts before but did use the figure as an example when elucidating on the prospect of Cardinale requesting tax incentives or bonds from the Augusta Development Authority.
“If they ask us for a bond to be issued for them, the burden is not that we’re going to give him some cash,” said Kendrick. “We’re just going to take something that’s not making any money, and make less on it in the beginning.”
Kendrick also said that the “him” should really be a “they,” stressing his communication about the project has been with Cardinale Management rather than an individual representative.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering education in Columbia County and business-related topics for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
