Members of the Augusta Coliseum Authority met in a retreat this week to discuss the progress in the planned building of a new facility to replace the aging James Brown Arena. One of the main issues discussed in the retreat was parking.
The new $228 million arena will have a capacity of 10,000 people, and the authority has decided to devise a cost-effective parking strategy rather than spend an additional $18 million on a parking deck.
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The current plan is to provide between 1,100 and 1,500 parking spaces on site with some reserved for box seat parking. The authority is commissioning a parking plan to identify all the parking spaces that are available at night for people to park off site in empty lots and parking garages downtown and then use a free shuttle service to bring them to the arena.
Authority member Brad Usry says that not building a parking deck saves money and actually will benefit downtown businesses.
“The idea is for people to come to downtown and visit the bars and restaurants and then catch one of the many shuttles we will have at various points,” Usry says. “We will provide a shuttle map so that people can easily get to the arena.”
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Usry says the authority also wants the public to take advantage of the national trend of ride sharing.
“Many people are now using ride shares like Uber for transportation to big events,” Usry says, “so if people use that as an alternative, they get front door access and don’t have to worry with parking at all.”
The planned 10-story structure will link to the Bell Auditorium so that the two venues can share kitchen services and office space which is another major cost saving. Usry says the authority is on track to break ground in April of 2022 and have the new James Brown Arena open for business by September of 2024.
Scott Hudson is the Managing Editor of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
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