Downtown master plan meetings run smoothly

The most clever television commercial I’ve seen lately is for an online job search company for upper-income professionals.

Two guys playing a spirited game of tennis get swarmed by hundreds of other “players.” The match is disrupted by everyone running around the court, swinging wildly at hundreds of tennis balls falling from the sky.

Chaos ensues as the voiceover says: “When you let everyone play, nobody wins.”
For some reason, I feared there would be a similar chaotic scene (minus the tennis balls) at the recent public forums for Augusta Tomorrow’s downtown master plan. When community leaders usually ask the general public for feedback on a major initiative – let alone one as complex as the blueprint for the future development of downtown Augusta and North Augusta – there always seems to be something that comes out of left field.
About one-third of the comments are constructive, a third are pie-in-the-sky wish list requests and the other third are general gripes that may or may not pertain to the issue at hand.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Augusta Tomorrow and its consultant, ICON Architecture Inc., organize a forum that kept the meeting from becoming a free-for-all. These folks should put on a “how to” workshop for some local government bodies.
There will likely be a follow-up meeting or two before ICON presents the completed master plan in December or January. If the planning goes as smooth as the forums, the plan should be well worth the $250,000 price tag.

ON ANOTHER POSITIVE NOTE: Kudos to the Greater Augusta Association of Realtors for making its local real estate statistics available to the public through its Web site.
Several of the group’s past and current leaders worked hard to create a site where locals can find out everything from how long homes are staying on the market to average sales prices for a given month.

Interested? Check it out at www.augustarealtors.com.

WE HAVE ENOUGH OF THOSE ANYWAY: Remember that Florida home warranty company that was considering Augusta for a 350-employee call center a couple of years ago?

No? Well, it doesn’t matter, because they’re not coming.

Last week, Cross Country Home Services Inc. said it would open its customer care center in Anderson, S.C., in a former Winn-Dixie store. The 350-employee center will take calls about the company’s home warranties and service plans.

Why not us? We’ve got vacant retail space, too.

“Our search results and analysis identified Anderson, S.C., as offering our client the best strategic location, favorable business climate, ample skilled workforce with low competitive saturation and an equitable incentive package,” Christine Sullivan, the vice president of Site Selection Group Inc., told a Greenville television station.

Note the phrase “low competitive saturation,” which, when translated into plainspeak means: “We do not wish to compete with Sitel, ADP and T-Mobile wages.”

GOODWILL STILL HUNTING: Goodwill Industries continues scouting property for its mega training center. The nonprofit almost bought the former St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church last year but couldn’t seal the deal (the property was eventually purchased by the principals of Milton Ruben Chevrolet, which is leasing part of the property to Pine View Baptist Church).

Goodwill says it hasn’t yet found a property large enough, affordable enough and close enough to its core clientele.

WORD ON THE STREET: Rumor has it that Milton Ruben’s appetite for real estate hasn’t been quenched yet. The dealership reportedly has its sights set on the tract just north of the former St. Teresa property – the Augusta Suzuki dealership.

The good guys at the Chevy dealership aren’t the only ones interested. The owners of Toyota of Augusta area also eyeing the corner of Washington and Pleasant Home roads.
If a bidding war is brewing, the owners of the Suzuki dealership are sure to be smiling.

A QUICK WORD ON RUMORS: You should see the stuff that doesn’t make it into Scuttlebiz.

WHAT ABOUT TOYOTA?: Real estate records show the seven-acre Toyota of Augusta dealership has been transferred for $12 million to “Car Dar Ga Aug LLC.”

Is that company simply another corporate entity created by the current owners, Darrow Automotive? Entirely possible, considering that employees haven’t been informed of a change in ownership. There is no record of Car Dar registered in Georgia or Wisconsin, Darrow’s home state. Dealership management has yet to return a call.

Are the owners making preparations for some sort of deal? We’ll get to the bottom of it. Eventually.

UNVERIFIABLE FACT NO. 614: 99.97 – percentage of area residents who dislike trains running through downtown Augusta.*

UNVERIFIABLE FACT NO. 615: 0 – percentage of area residents who can do anything about it.

BIOFUEL BONANZA: Here’s something I recently learned – nearly all cars in Brazil are powered by ethanol. Unlike the corn-based stuff we use in the U.S. ( Augusta area stations began selling 10 percent ethanol blended gas this year), the fuel the Brazilians use comes from sugar cane, which is a much better feedstock.

It takes one unit of fossil fuel to create eight units of ethanol, compared to one to one for corn.

Brazil began investing in ethanol production in the early 1970s, around the same time the folks at OPEC decided to boost prices by turning the oil spigot to the right (remember, it’s lefty loosy). Brazil is now energy independent and nearly all its cars are “flex-fuel” models.

Why my sudden interest in Brazil’s ethanol industry? I found out L t. Gov. Casey Cagle recently took a trade mission there **. He was particularly interested in the biofuel industry because of Georgia’s desire to turn its pine trees into celluosic ethanol (which is also superior to corn).

“I met with leaders of the biofuel industry in Brazil and urged them to make Georgia a significant part of their future growth and potential,” he said in a statement issued by his office.

If you want to learn more, check out his (ahem) blog on the subject at www.stateofgeorgiamissions.com. Don’t expect to be buying Brazilian ethanol anytime soon. The 54-cent-a-gallon tariff on imported ethanol ensures it will never hit our shores.
Perhaps the lieutenant governor can get our Georgia delegation to work on a tariff repeal? I’d rather buy ethanol from a country known for skimpy swimsuits than oil from countries that don’t like the United States. Or skimpy swimsuits, for that matter.

* Some of us find trains make a convenient excuse for being late.

** Brazil is Georgia’s 11th largest trade partner. Last year, it bought $495 million worth of our stuff and we bought $915.5 million of theirs. There’s a Brazil nut joke in there somewhere.