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Regency Mall


perrykat

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Just why do you think all of these new shopping centers being built in Richmond County are being built in the extreme NW portion of the county... and not the southside or Hephzibah, or the eastside? The Forum shopping center will also be about a stone's throw from the Columbia County border.. because that is where most of the population growth is. Also don't forget about all of the shopping centers that have opened in Columbia County or are planned to open..., Mullins Crossing, Marshall Square(another mixed use lifestyle center), Lowes, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart Super center.

What are you talking about the village is closer to aiken county than columbia county. Richmond county is adding lifestyle centers not shopping centers like columbia county. Shopping centers are just strip malls with stores like ross, marshalls, and others, lifestyle centers are totally diffrent. The forum will have retail and residential so its not a shopping center. The village will have hotels, so its not large strips malls like mullins crossing is in coumbia conunty. At first you complain about evans in the columbia county thread now you praise it in another for the large strip malls, and adding lowes, and home depot. Make up your mind, you said in the evans thread this isn't something that gets you excited. Now you're acting like columbia county is getting some retail that richmond isn't. You say the forum is in the nw portion of the county i dont think walton way is the nw portion of of the county, sorry.

You always complain with anything about augusta so who really cares, you leave 6 replys in a row like that makes your point more valid

Richmond county retail

pf changs

the chop house

costco

hollister

buckle

coach

williams and sonoma

coldwater creek

columbia county doesn't have any of these stores end of discussion.

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That location is practically right on the Richmond/Columbia County border right on I20..it is being built where it is because of its visibilty and access to I20 and its location near the high growth areas of NE Columbia County. This is also going to be a lifestyle center.. not an enclosed shopping mall. There are no plans in the near furture to build another enclosed shopping mall in the area.

A lifestyle center of that size is considered an "open air mall". It has the same type of stores that malls have. The reason why there are no plans to build an enclosed mall is being because lifestyle centers are more popular. The offer the same stores you find in malls but provide a better shopping experience. If enclosed malls were still in, then that's what Village at Riverwatch would have been. As a matter of fact, if you read some of the earlier articles about the Village at Riverwatch, you will see that the developers were actually planning on building an enclosed mall. But Dillards (who are no longer part of the project) suggested a lifestyle center because they thought it would be a nicer addtion to the area and I agree. Columbia County residents don't really want all of that development out where they are so it will be a while before you see any regional shopping areas...if at all.

I do agree with your earlier comment about the Regency Mall being demolished. It's an eyesore.

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People back in the late 70s knew that one of the two malls woud not survive.

There was a race back then to open one mall before the other. Regency opened about a week before Augusta mall.

Augusta mall had the clear advantage though. It was right off the freeway and had high visibility.. IT was closer to I20 which made it more accessible for shoppers from South Carolina, Columbia County and McDuffie County.

Augusta mall also was able to attract retailers that area shoppers considered to be more upscale than Regency's selection.

Augusta mall continued to expand and update its appearance. Regency Mall, in its lifespan, never updated its late 1970s appearance and never expanded. Infact when it opened large sections of the mall were vacant such as the south wing that was envisioned to accomodate another anchor store.. It never did.. and the mall was never full of tenants during its lifespan.

Fewer and fewer large enclosed shopping malls are being built today in favor of the open air lifestyle center concept like The Village at Riverwatch. But the concept of The Village has changed since Augusta Mall announced its expansion with a lifestyle center. It's believed some of the stores that were initially going to locate at The Village ended up at The Augusta Mall lifestyle center. MGHerring, the developer of The Village, initially wanted to incorporate the nearby canal in its plans.. creating a CanalWalk, but The Canal Authority nixed that idea..

So far the announced anchors are Belk and Costco... an 18 cinema movieplex is also planned.

Dillards was initially touted as a tenant but it is no longer mentioned. It will be interesting to see how they are able to incorporate a Costco into the Village atmosphere they are promoting. Hopefully it won't have the typical "Big Box" warehouse look of other Costcos.

Something tells me that MGHerring made significant changes to their Village concept after Augusta Mall announced its lifestyle center. The project was put on hold but now it appears to be on track. It will be interesting to see the end result. I just hope it turns out to be a pedestrian open air village concept like it was originally touted as and not another Power strip center like Augusta Exchange.

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Not true about Regency Mall not updating. While it didnt go through massive renovations I can remember back in the mid-80's when they renovated some.

Oh...and they have incorporated Costcos into Lifestyle Centers/Mixed Use developments like this. The one in Greenville is in a development like this....with highrise residentail planned even!

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I think with the fall line freeway completion the regency property will be a good investment. As long as the development is on the richnond county side of the border we get the tax dollars. When the Village is complete will get the Aiken County tax dollars since its alot closer to northAugusta than Evans. St Sabastian and Palmetto Parkway will may Augusta alot more accessible, inturn allow more traffic in the city. I still think my beach idea is the best...hahahaha

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Regency failed for a lot of reasons. Not sure what "South Wing" you're referring to unless you mean the Theater entrance. The mall was definitely too big for Augusta. Belk's didn't open on the north wing for, I think, several years after it opened. Cullum's, arguably the highest class local department store, barely opened in the mall before the chain closed. That anchor position went through many incarnations, none lasting very long. I agree that the building was never fully leased and never made real attempts to improve its appearance. I could have sworn that Montgomery Ward had closed its doors in the early 90s as well, though reports here list it as being the last anchor standing. There was no attempt to centralize the restaurants into a food court and the shopping center and theater they added on really were a last gasp attempt to save the place.

In general, though, businesses succeed where the money is. In Augusta, that's generally the north side of town. I doubt there's much that can be done with the place now. A church is not going to save it. If the congregation has the money, they're going to want to build their own place, not try to make a mall fit their needs.

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I have never understood why people romanticize shopping malls.

I remember when Regency Mall opened.. It was never an attractive building to begin with.

I wish more people would be concerned about what to do with all of the abandoned historic buildings in downtown Augusta then what happens to an ugly circa 1978 shopping mall that probably never should have been built in the first place.

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I have never understood why people romanticize shopping malls.

I remember when Regency Mall opened.. It was never an attractive building to begin with.

I wish more people would be concerned about what to do with all of the abandoned historic buildings in downtown Augusta then what happens to an ugly circa 1978 shopping mall that probably never should have been built in the first place.

It's an eyesore. I want the whole city to look good, not just downtown. They need to do something with that property.

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It's an eyesore. I want the whole city to look good, not just downtown. They need to do something with that property.

I agree its an eyesore.. so have it demolished. Why is it so hard for the city of Augusta to enforce building codes? There are numerous eyesores throughout the city. If the city got tough and started fining these property owners.. the problems would be fixed quickly.

But ideas to move the government center and the arena to regency mall are wrongheaded.. because they would have a profoundly negative impact on downtown.

But I think a vocational magnet school on that property would be a good idea. The School system already owns the back parcel where General Cinemas (not the one inside the mall, but behind it). They would have the powers of emininet domain since a school would be a public use of the property. A magnet school makes since because it would draw students from all over the county.. and the regency mall is a central location and easily accessible. Investments in public education has one of the highest returns.

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  • 2 weeks later...

last month, New York-based Cardinale Holdings LLC, the owner of the bulk of the mall property, acquired the former Montgomery Ward building from a Charleston, S.C., investment group for $2.3 million. Under approval by the Augusta Commission, the principals at Johnson Consulting have put together a

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last month, New York-based Cardinale Holdings LLC, the owner of the bulk of the mall property, acquired the former Montgomery Ward building from a Charleston, S.C., investment group for $2.3 million. Under approval by the Augusta Commission, the principals at Johnson Consulting have put together a "community leadership group" that includes area business leaders to create a public-private venture to redevelop the land. Developers say the 75 acre site is no longer called regency mall. But Rocky Creek or Center City.

proposals: government complex, factory outlet stores, sports complex, hard rock cafe & hotel, vocational or magnet school, college. And many others. They say this is the most attention the property has gotten since montgomery ward closed in 2000.

THe Rocky Creek proposal is old news and dead in the water (unfortunately)..The Augusta Commission ignored the proposal by Windward Consulting to create a mixed use development at the site in order to pursue the Arena idea. Anyone who has been following news in Augusta for the last 4 years knows that voters rejected the arena proposal twice. There are no plans to resurrect the idea. Also moving the government center to the mall was also rejected by the commission on numerous occassions.. that's old stuff from the 90s when Sconyers was Mayor. Now that the new Government and Judicial center will be built in downtown, the notion of moving the government center to Regency Mall is moot. So far there are no large scale plans for the mall. I say attention should be returned to the rocky creek proposal.. but maybe as a downscaled version incorporating a magnet school and a park.

Hard Rock Hotel??? Where did that come from? Only in your dreams.

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Rocky creek or center city is just the named. Of the mall now nothing more. The area around it is already called rocky creek. If you lived in augusta you would already know this. When you drive down some roads like richmond hill rd. You will see the signs that say rocky creek already. But i forgot you won't see the signs because you don't drive through augusta.

As you can see this is the latest info was from december 2007. The owner of the bulk of the mall acquired the rest of the mall in late 2007. The proposals I listed were all given at one point in time. Why do you love to leave negative postings. If i go through every thread. And look at your post they're all something negative about augusta.

Jungletobacco already asked why would you even promote such a name. He asked what do you have against augusta. But you got scared and never answered him. Trying to act like you didn't read it. Its in the laney walker thread so i know you saw it.. But i bet you won't even answer.

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If another mall ever opens in the area, it would likely be built along I20 in Columbia County.

This is your quote remember. Either you are lying or obviously you don't watch as much news as you think.

You said you have followed augusta news for the past 4 years right. So why would you type this then. The news annouced in 2006 the mall was coming to richmond county. Yet you type this only 1 month ago on Dec 10, 2007. No mall is coming to columbia county. This is totally false. What news show told you this. Exactly no news show.

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  • 8 months later...

According to local news on February 20, 2009, the city is in talks with the mall's owners to try to clean up the property and renovate to make it more presentable for buyers and to revitalize the surrounding area. I'm sure this idea will go up in smoke as well.

Here's an idea nobody mentioned, how about like an aquarium or a museum of some sort?

Look at Fort Discovery in Downtown, which was from what I heard, developed from a short-lived mall...The Shoppes at Port Royal...if anyone can remember.

The mall could be revitalized with a little bit of TLC, however, with people constantly complaining over what could go on the mall site or in the mall for that matter, why the owners aren't cleaning up the property, why the city isn't doing anything, and why every single development idea that was to be implemented fell through, is not going to help out the deterioration, because if it continues to deteriorate, then it will be not worth using for anything if any idea gets implemented. From what I've read so far, it appears the mall is falling within itself and nothing is being done...to recap: Grafitti, Broken Windows, Mold everywhere, overgrown trees inside and outside the mall, structural damage (caused by a collapsing foundation and by vandalism), not to mention the infestation of cats, rats, and god knows what kind of insect life. I'm sure (personal opinion) also the electricity and plumbing is probably shot, the escalators and elevators (if there are any, i was young the last time i was there in the early 90s when the mall was underperforming) are broken beyond repair, im sure ceiling tiles are falling, tile is cracking, and the dark wood paneling is falling off. When you have to enter the mall (which has skylights, mind you, which im sure are not boarded up...if im not mistaken, I think there was a center court skylight thing where the Y-shape branches in the middle) and have to use high power flashlights and its still dark even with the flashlights...yes, you do have a problem.

Tear it down, or find something to do with it...because I'm sure before long its going to come to the point where the citizens of Augusta are just going to burn it or tear it down themselves.

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