Growth in Augusta
Lots of great things are happening in Columbbia County! Click here to watch WRDW’s latest on the growth in the Augusta area, and more specifically, Harlem, Ga.
News 12 at 6 o’ clock/ Oct. 24, 2014 WRDW
HARLEM, Ga. (WRDW) — We’re starting to see real signs of local growth from the Cyber Command transition to Fort Gordon.
City leaders in Harlem say more businesses and more home buyers are already in the area, and they’re putting plans in place to welcome more.
“We have seen an influx of local soldiers walking through the doors,” said Frank Beevers who owns a gun shop in Harlem. He says some of them have been connected to the new Cyber Center, and the extra business is more than welcome.
“The more traffic that comes to the area, they all stop in, they walk by the streets out here, check out all the local stores,” Beevers said.
It’s growth city leaders are bracing for too. Harlem hired Will Butler to help with all of the building requests.
“We’ve seen an increase in residential building, both new homes being built and additions that have been happening. We’ve seen an uptick in businesses being established here and interested in looking here,” Butler said.
In addition to new houses popping up in Harlem, ‘Coming Soon’ signs can be spotted in the historic downtown area. And, if you’re looking to open a business, Harlem is pushing military tax credits for you to move downtown.
“Business owners can get a per job credit, I believe it’s $3,500 per job any time they create two or more new jobs,” said City Manager, Jason Rizner.
The city hopes to lure even more businesses downtown after they build a new green space.
“We just want to establish a central gathering spot where people could come and we could hold events and do a number of things like that,” Rizner said.
They’re also planning to build a new library downtown, possibly opening up onto that greenspace. All of this hopefully leading to more people calling Harlem home.
With more people comes more, well, bathroom visits, and Harlem says they just got approval from the EPD to double the size of their waste water treatment plant.
