Are Augusta leaders sweet or sour on plans for huge pickleball complex?
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Growth is something you can choose to ignore or embrace.
This was something that was brought before Augusta Commission on Tuesday – deciding whether or not to move forward with plans for a $80 million tennis-pickleball complex in west Augusta.
A private investor wants the city to come up with $7 million to fund 18 tennis courts, and he’d pay for the rest, including 48 pickleball courts – half of them indoors – other amenities and a 200-room hotel.
Investor Troy Akers, who’s already found success with the Dink’d indoor pickleball business in Columbia County, says the project would create 875 jobs – 350 of them direct and 525 indirect.
He says the economic impact would be about $182 million.
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A committee of city employees analyzed the plan and urged commissioners to say no, for reasons including funding, the possibility it could threaten their plans for an existing city-owned tennis center, the idea of letting an outside company manage some city facilities and other concerns.
Commissioners didn’t reject his plan, but they didn’t say yes.
So, what’s next?
Akers’ team and a city team will talk about finding a solution.
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The initial proposal was to redirect SPLOST funds meant for the Newman Tennis Center.
But city leaders agree that the money is already committed and can’t be redirected.
Augusta Commission member Wayne Guilfoyle says it may be possible to recover some SPLOST money that perhaps went unspent because projects came in under budget.
Another option is to include it in a future SPLOST, he said, which would give city leaders and the developer some time to sell the project.
“Mr. Akers has been successful in other cities, and he’s giving us an opportunity, and I think we need to take advantage of it, at least look at the details of it instead of just saying no,” he said.
“That’s the reason Augusta never gets to grow or prosper is because we keep saying no,” he said. “Sometimes we’ve got to say yes.”
Commissioner Don Clark agreed.
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“I think it’s a great concept,” he said, but the city just needs to find a funding source.
Redirecting already committed SPLOST money is not anything anyone wants, he said.
“I’m sure there are other sources out there that we can look at that we haven’t even talked about yet,” he said, but trying to redirect already allocated funds is a non-starter,” he said.
But he wants to try to find something that works.
“For me, anytime we can get health activities and healthy competition ... it’s another layer of introduction, of bringing folks to the area, and I think we need to continue to build in that regard,” he said.
Akers is hopeful.
“A lot of vision, a lot of dreams. We just hope that we can connect to the commissioners to make it happen,” he said.
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He said he was impressed that commissioners have at least been respectful enough to listen.
“This is a great project,” he said. “I would love for it to move forward. If it doesn’t, then we need to move on with other options or just close it.”
The tax revenue and job creation are reasons alone to find the funding for it, he said.
“This is one of the few projects Augusta is considering that would bring money back into the city instead of just being like a yearly spend that you don’t get any return on,” he said.
MORE ABOUT THE PLAN:
The goal is to bring in national tournaments.
“We’re talking about millions of dollars paid just by the tournament organizers,” he said. “Within a year, there would be a complete and total return on their investment.”
He said the plan isn’t something new but a replication of things that are working elsewhere across the country and across the state. And if he gets turned down here, there are other communities that want it.
“If Augusta really wants to be this forward-moving progressive area that everyone says that they want to be, then it requires investment,” he said.
“And the same broken government system that’s existed has prevented a lot of the development people are clamoring for,” he said.
“Every day on Facebook, I see that they want this and they want that and they want this, and people like me are trying to bring all that,” he said. “I understand that we’ve got to play by the rules, but they’ve got to work with us, as well.”
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