Merry Christmas from the Augustalee Team!

Josh Rector, Dan McGinnis, Charles MacLean and the rest of the Augustalee team wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! These photos were taken at a recent conference of the International Council of Shopping Centers in New York City. (Story near end below)

Clearing of Old Structures Has Begun at Augustalee Site

An old motel which had long been a safety hazard has been demolished on the future Augustalee mixed-use project site at Westmoreland Road and Highway 21.

“Even though we’re not going to break ground with new construction for a little more than a year, we wanted to clean up the site, minimize liability, be ready to move quickly, and give the firefighters a chance to practice,” said Josh Rector, Senior Vice President of Cornelius Bromont, LLC, the developer.

On the night of Dec. 12, representatives of the developer; Whiting-Turner, the Augustalee construction manager; and Cornelius-Lemley Fire & Rescue coordinated a controlled burn of the old motel on Highway 21/Statesville Road so that the fire department could gain some valuable practice with a commercial structure fire, Rector explained. Then on Dec. 15, Whiting-Turner brought in heavy equipment to clear away the burned structure and other debris from the site.

“We really appreciate Cornelius Bromont donating this building for this valuable firefighting practice exercise,” said Capt. Greg Shaner of Cornelius-Lemley Fire & Rescue. “We don’t have a dedicated training facility, so we have to use acquired structures to do all our training. This allows us to practice every aspect of firefighting, including search and rescue with a dummy inside the fire, fire tack training, and also great pumping practice on the trucks.”

Augustalee Website Enhanced And Expanded

The augustalee.com website has been enhanced with the new Augustalee name and is also accessible via www.Augustalee.com. A number of new visuals have been added, including full-width renderings in a slide show on the home page, detailed drawings of transportation improvements, and a 3-D “flythrough” movie that shows the project in 3 dimensions as the “camera angle” flies around the project much as a helicopter would, occasionally “hovering” in one spot for a better view.

The transportation details and the movie are accessible through the website’s Plan Details section. New transportation maps show more complete information concerning planned traffic flows, interchange improvements, and surrounding roadways that intersect with Highway 21/Statesville Road and with Westmoreland Road, the two main arteries along with I-77 bounding the project site.

Leasing Team Attends ICSC Conference

Members of the Augustalee Leasing Team participated in the International Council of Shopping Centers in New York City in early December. “We interacted with a lot of people and handed out our new retail leasing brochure to those most interested,” said Senior VP Josh Rector. “There were a lot of developers in attendance looking for tenants, so things are obviously very competitive especially in light of the current economy. But we’re getting our name out, building national awareness, and believe strongly that we will be ready when the economic climate improves.”

Joining Rector at ICSC was Dan McGinnis of CB Richard Ellis, the primary leasing manager for the project. More about Augustalee’s retail offerings, a PDF of the new brochure, and McGinnis’s contact information can be found on the Retail page of the website at www.Augustalee.com .

Value Engineering Yields Dividends

Value engineering – the process of examining every detail of a project’s architectural plans in light of probably construction costs – has yielded a number of potential savings in the Augustalee project, says Senior VP Josh Rector. “While none of these changes are dramatic, we have discovered ways we can make modifications and improve the efficiency of our design to save money. Given the state of the current economy and fluctuating prices, this is a very positive benefit and can only help further ensure the viability of the development.”

As always, your questions and feedback are welcome at our website,
www.Augustalee.com. Encourage your friends and associates to sign up for future editions of this email newsletter on the “news” page of the website.