History and Overview of Downtown Augusta’s Olde Town Neighborhood

The Olde Town Neighborhood is located in Downtown Augusta, between 5th Street and East Boundary, and from the River to the Cemeteries on Watkins Street.  Originally known as “pinch gut” the neighborhood was originally built in 1737 as the original neighborhood of Augusta.  Almost the entire neighborhood was burned in the great fire of 1916, and most of the buildings date from 1917-1920.  Both Broad and Greene had streetcar tracks in between the lanes, which have now become linear parks.  The neighborhood has experienced a renewal in the past 10 years as demand for housing close to the urban core, coupled with great infrastructure and amenities has made it downtown’s neighborhood of choice.

One of the things that has made Olde Town so popular is the Traditional Neighborhood Design (TND).  Measuring about 4 city blocks by 6 city blocks, the neighborhood is easily walkable in 10 minutes.   Almost all the streets in Olde Town have sidewalks, and the median parks contain pet waste stations.  The streets are lined with trees, and almost all homes have front porches, and anytime you go out you will run into your neighbors. A short bike ride will take you anywhere in Downtown Augusta and the Medical District.

The buildings in Olde Town represent a wide variety of different styles, from Craftsman to Victorian, and the construction from that era is quite sturdy.  The homes are generally built on piers over crawl spaces, balloon framed, with thick framing and structural decking.  Many of the homes feature intricate woodwork and columns.

Olde Town is also an incredibly diverse neighborhood—of 991 housing units in 2018, 37% of them are single family homes, 44% are duplex-quadplex, and 19% are in apartment buildings!  Typical lots in Olde Town are quite narrow, ranging from 40-80 feet, with an average being 55 feet.  This contributes to an amazing diversity of residents, from young people to elderly, black and white, owners and renters, rich and poor.

Olde Town contains a number of wonderful neighborhood amenities.  Heritage Academy, a private Christian school located in the Historic Houghton Schoolhouse, is located on Greene Street.  The Fox’s Lair, where neighbors gather at the neighborhood pub, is located on Telfair Street.  Christ Community Health Services, a community health center providing medical and dental care, provides quality healthcare to the families in Olde Town.  The Savannah River is the neighborhood’s northern border, and moments away for kayaking and paddle boarding, with easy access to the marina and boat house.

Olde Town residents enjoy a strong demand for short term rentals.  Augusta is the home to the largest Ironman Triathlon in the united states, and Olde Town’s boat house is where the triathletes transition on their bikes.  Every year, triathletes fill the neighborhood, and residents line the street to watch the runners come down Broad and Greene Street.   Augusta is also home to the world’s premier golf course, and being a straight shot down Broad street to the course, Olde Town owners enjoy hosting golf patrons every April.

The Basics of Historic Tax Credits

What are historic tax Credits?  Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits are available for developers who renovate historic buildings.  These include federal and state historic tax credits.  The federal tax credit is 20% of the qualified expenses over 5 years.  Most states (GA and SC included) have 25% tax credits, often with a cap.  Georgia’s tax credit is capped at $300,000 for the time being, and South Carolina’s is capped at 1,000,000. 

Which buildings qualify for this credit?  Buildings located in historic districts or individually listed in the national register of historic places qualify, also buildings deemed by the state historic preservation office to be historically significant. 

Historic Tax credits are incredibly complex instruments.  They can be used to make historic renovation projects feasible that otherwise would not make financial sense.  They can be coupled with other programs such as the opportunity zone program or enterprise zone programs.  This article will cover some of the basics and provide links to helpful resources. 

What are financial guidelines?  First, you must spend more than the adjusted basis in your renovation.  Make sure to talk with a tax professional to help you organize this calculation, but basically you must spend an amount greater than what the building is worth. Second, only certain expenses are eligible for the credit—these are “qualified rehabilitation expenditures” (QREs).  QREs include construction costs, taxes, consulting expenses, architectural costs, among others.  Generally, additions to the building do not quality, as well as furnishings, commissions, and appliances.   

Are there guidelines for the renovation?   Yes.  The secretary of the interior has guidelines for the renovation they’d like applicants to follow, repairing rather than replacing historic elements, preserving distinctive finishes and features, and maintaining the historic character of the building.  You can see their 10 principles here

Is there a requirement to hold the property for a certain amount of time?  Yes.  You must hold the property for 5 years. 

Who can use historic tax credits?  In many cases, application of the Federal tax credit is limited to passive income for taxpayers with adjusted gross income above $250,000.  Real estate professionals, short-term rental operators, and C-corps are exempted from this rule.  See questions 35-37 here.  

How do you apply?  We generally recommend that an applicant work with a consultant and an accountant to help them with the applications.  Reach out to us and we can connect you with expert consultants. 

We’d love to learn from you and hear your feedback!  Have you ever participated in a historic tax credit project?  Have you evaluated a historic renovation? 

This post originally appeared in Jonathan Aceves’s blog and is republished with permission. 

Lessons from Sharedspace in Augusta

Today we’re going to talk about SharedSpace and Coworking with John Cates, COO and General Counsel at Meybohm Real Estate

 

Jonathan Aceves (JA): Tell us a little about your prior experience with the coworking business model.

John Cates (JC): When i was in Atlanta, coworking was just starting to take off.  Not just from a office space model but also as a model of entrepreneurship.  Coworking space like WeWork and others that were purely office tenant landlords but also incubator space.  We were involved with helping the Atlanta Technology Village to get started.  We got to see in Atlanta over a six or seven year period,  the coworking model take shape in all its different forms.  

JA: What was your connection to SharedSpace?

JC: I was approached by the SharedSpace group before they got started as they were looking for different space in Downtown Augusta.  We had some mutual connections from my time in Atlanta.  And they really reached out to me to try to get some advice as to pricing and location and what I thought would work and what wouldn’t work here. I guess a little bit like a sounding board.  They actually approached us about potentially getting involved both from a personal and company standpoint. 

JA: What was your advice at the time in setting up that business?

I think the first thing is that coworking takes different forms depending on the area that you’re in.  So coworking in place like Augusta or you call a secondary market is very different from coworking in Atlanta.  Your pricing needs to be different. Your sizing needs to be different.  The companies yo are going to attract are very different.  And pricing is probably the most important because when you’re dealing with a space like SharedSpace over on Greene Street when you can go over to Broad Street and get a comparable office space.   So i think Coworking is an asset class in and of itself outside of office space and is very unique.  And one of the things I really tried to explain to them was that Augusta is not like Atlanta. That’s not a good or bad thing–it’s just a fact.  Some of the other things were that you need to be really, really careful about how you program the space, because coworking space really only works when it’s programmed properly.  Nobody wants to be in a coworking space by themselves.  You have to create a pretty inviting and exciting entrepreneurial community where you’ve got several people doing different things.  There has to be a good energy there.  And so i think that you really have to do a good job of programming certain events to give people a reason to want to be there, because a lot of people who are there are likely either working at home or they’re working somewhere else.  So you want to build that community, I think that was it.  And one of the parts where I initially tried to offer some advice in addition to that was getting the size correct.  

JA: Do you think we’re seeing a paradigm shift in the coworking space?  Are consumers changing the way they office?  We’ve seen the fall of WeWork, and now this.  What are your thoughts in general about the coworking model?  

JC: I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s the model. I don’t think wework’s struggles through their IPO are really a true reflection of the health of the coworking space and the coworking industry.  Again i think it works, but it has got to be done smaller, then growing larger. That was one of the biggest things that I didn’t necessarily agree with about SharedSpace was that I thought they went too big too fast.  Nobody wants to go into one of these spaces to be alone and what my advice was initially was pick a smaller space, maybe 3000, 4000, 5000 square feet–to be bursting at the seams.  Program it, get people in there, and have a waiting list.  Then once you’ve got that demand there and that community built, then you can transport it to a bigger space.  But by not having the right programming up front, by taking a space that was too big, I think this deincentivized people from wanting to be in there, because nobody wanted to be in there and hear their own voices echo.  So you’ve got to balance the cultural aspect of coworking space with the size of it itself.  Then the other thing is that if someone can go to Broad street, which is two blocks from there and a potentially more desirable location than Greene Street,  and get a location for about the same price for a company of three or four people, then that’s what they’re going to do.  So there’s still a decent amount of good office like that one on Broad Street.  So I don’t know how appealing it would be to me as a small business or as a freelancer to locate my business in there.  And I think what happened was that they ended up getting a few smaller versions of call centers.  And that goes against the whole entrepreneurial atmosphere that you’re trying to create.  

JA: What implications does this business case have for downtown business and retail?  

JC: Well I think the first thing is to understand why it happened.  Just because the concept didn’t work, doesn’t mean that coworking can’t work in Augusta.  There’s a significant demand for it.  And I think one of the things that we saw when I was involved in the Augusta Innovation Zone was that we also got to the point where we were almost going to be in a place that was too big.  And that’s why it didn’t work in the Woolworth building when we were were looking at that a few years ago, and we felt that there was a huge need for it.  And we had a waiting list.  But you had to start smaller to prove out the concept.  So I don’t want people to take away that this model doesn’t work in a market like Augusta.  It does.  You just cannot start to big and your pricing needs to be reflective of the market–it’s got to be lower than what you can otherwise get on Broad street or somewhere else.  The other thing is that the model really should work when you’re trying to also use the space to create new businesses.  So i think it’s one thing that the Clubhou.se has done really well.  And you know–they’re bursting at the seams, and as you know they’re located in the Cyber Center and doing great.  But that’s because the pricing is right.  The location is right, and I think they’ve proven that if you can partner with the right people and get entrepreneurs in that space and activated, that it works.  So that would be my only big takeaway is don’t look at this and say that the concept doesn’t work because it is working.  It just has to be done right.  The Clubhou.se has done a really good job proving that the concept does work. 

JA: Those are great lessons.  

 

A big lesson is the value of good advice–and how important it is as advisors to tell the hard truth to our clients.  What other lessons can you learn from this business case?  What are your thoughts about Coworkign in Augusta?  What is working?  What are lessons you’ve learned in launching a new enterprise? 

Downtown Residential Market Report

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGggUa-lkUw&feature=youtu.be

Today we’re going to cover one of our pet subjects, the Downtown Augusta residential market, specifically Olde Town.  Click here to download Olde Town Q4 2019 Market Report

 

What’s going on:  Prices are rising–homes bought at retail (livable, decent condition) have risen from about $63/SF on average to just under $80/SF on average over four years–that’s about a 26% increase.  As a whole, the average price has risen from about $30/SF to about $57/SF–almost double–over the past four years.  

 

Part of what’s happening is that there are lots of abandoned and derelict homes that have been purchased, along with the rise of young professionals moving downtown.  The average buyer in Olde Town today is a young, single, professional female.  She is educated, trendy, and wants to be connected to the neighborhood and the downtown.  

 

In 2010 when I bought my home in Olde Town, things were much different.  The neighborhood was ‘busier’–more foot traffic, and there was a significantly higher percentage of section 8 housing in the neighborhood.  Over the past ten years families have moved downtown–many connected to First Presbyterian Church and Christ Community Health Services (a non-profit heath center located in the middle of Olde Town).  The rents started rising, investors started buying and renovating the homes, and soon things started changing.  

 

In the past two years is when I’d say I’ve seen the most change.  The main section 8 property in our neighborhood, Olde Town Apartments, had their tax credit expire and has been renting and selling their properties at market rate (primarily to young professionals).  Many of the derelict properties on the southern edge of the neighborhood have been demolished, and plans are underway for new homes to be built.  

 

My prediction is that the trends we see will continue, and that home values will continue to climb.  I think that if the trend continues, in the next two years prices/SF for homes sold at retail will surpass $100/ft, at which time we will hit a tipping point which will open the neighborhood to new construction, and we will see many of the functionally obsolete homes demolished and new homes built.  All this is great for our city, and for the greater urban community in Augusta, GA.  

 

What are your thoughts?  Where do you see the market downtown headed?

132-Unit Student Multifamily Housing Development given Preliminary Approval

2715 N Davidson
Photo is of the 2715 N Davidson Apartment Development, another project that College Acres was involved with.  –Charlotte Business Journal

 

 

132-Unit Student Multifamily Housing Development on Druid Park Ave given preliminary approval. Myrtle Beach Developer College Acres has proposed to build a four-story #apartment development aimed at Paine & AU students. David Despain, the developer, has developed a number of similar properties, and was also involved in working with Coastal Carolina University for the development of the HTC Center in Conway, SC.

 

It is great to see developers take notice of what’s happening in Augusta. This looks like a great project and should have a big positive impact in that neighborhood!

 

Augusta Chronicle Article: https://www.augustachronicle.com/news/20191202/developer-proposes-student-housing-complex-on-druid-park-ave

 

Info on Charlotte Project: https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2015/07/developers-planning-147-unit-apartment-complex-in.html

 

Info on Wilmington Project: https://www.starnewsonline.com/news/20190103/more-student-housing-proposed-near-uncw

Wilmington Project Approved in October: https://www.wect.com/2018/10/18/wilmington-planning-commission-approves-college-acres-townhome-development/

 

Horry City Council Minutes RE: Tiff Bonds for HTC Center:

https://www.horrycounty.org/Portals/0/Docs/council/archives/min04-0518.pdf