Wait. Renovate. Populate. Repeat
The long, bumpy journey of the Whites Building looks to be coming to an end
By Eric Johnson
Dozens of people crowded into the lobby of the Whites Building last Thursday, where they were greeted by food and drink and complimentary Whites Building umbrellas.
Over the years, the lobby has played host to many such announcements, including the kickoff to the original condo project, the press conference announcing that developer’s financial woes and later, the public unveiling of the Downtown Development Authority’s (DDA) parking meter plan, and though it was just as crowded and just as loud, there was a sense of finality to Thursday’s proceedings. The building was officially and finally ready for business.
“It’s been a long journey,” said DDA Executive Director Margaret Woodard, who’s not just executive director of the DDA, which is housed in the building, but also one of the original group of condo owners. “There hasn’t been a condominium project built for 20-25 years sinceRiver Place.”
At the ribbon cutting, Woodard could barely contain her enthusiasm for the project.
“Tonight is really a rebirth and renaissance of a project that two years ago had a very uncertain future,” she said.
Because it was a ribbon cutting, there was lots of ceremony and plenty of people with something to say. Officials from Rialto Capital Management, the real estate group that snatched the project from a very real abyss after the original developer couldn’t finish the project, spoke of the joys and challenges of bringing the old building back to life, and the mayor thanked them for investing inAugusta.
Ultimately, though, the crowd just wanted to experience the reveal, to ride the elevator and see once and for all what a renovated department store looks like when developers turn it into high-end living space
Originally a beloved Augusta institution with a long history downtown, the JB Whites store abandoned 936 Broad Street in the late 1970s when just about everything else was abandoning Broad Street, and like just about everything else on Broad Street, the building sat vacant for years.
In 1999, Augusta Renaissance Partners, a group that included Clay and Braye Boardman, Tommy Blanchard, Julian Roberts and Turner Simkins, announced a plan to put 36 apartments along with retail and office space into the building, but by 2000, the local political climate was too uncertain for them to continue.CurtisBaptistChurchhad just convinced the Commission to deny an alcohol license for a downtown restaurant, even though it was outside of the distance requirement from the church – a scary precedent for anyone contemplating a restaurant or nightclub – and the city was also in the midst of changing administrators.
In 2001, the group received a grant to fix the front entrance and it also restored the walkway overEllis Street, an element of the building almost as iconic as the famous water tower.
In spite of all the heavy hitters, the project languished and was taken over in October 2007 byAtlantabusinessman Sherwin Loudermilk and his business partner Mike Raeisghasem. Together, they planned to renovate the 80,000 square-foot building by constructing more than 50 condo units above the ground floor office and retail space.
They invested $9 million into the project and had finished 10 condos when their bank, Duluth-based Haven Trust, was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in late 2008.
FDIC protection helped shield depositors and investors, but it did not extend to the project’s construction loan. The project stalled, and despite Loudermilk’s repeated offers to bring new investors to the
project, the FDIC, which held the property as a loan asset, declined to bring him back into the project.
In November of 2009 the building was auctioned on the courthouse steps, but drew only one bid of $800,000, well short of the $1.5 million minimum bid.
Nine months later, Rialto Capital Management, a Miami-based real estate company known for investing in distressed properties and mortgage-backed securities, foreclosed on the project and started over.
“This is a company that had the expertise, the wherewithal and the purse strings to give downtownAugustathe signature project it deserves,” Woodard said, and though ultimately they did just that, there was no guarantee at all that they would continue the project. Many such projects are simply shuttered.
Paul King, president of Rex Property & Land which managed the master and residential associations, calls the time after the bank seizure the Dark Period.
“We were really in a crisis,” he said. “There wasn’t enough money coming in to keep the lights on and stuff.”
In the midst of this Dark Period, Loudermilk, who said he felt Woodard was acting against his best interests by talking to the FDIC and seeking outside developers to take over the project, sent a letter requesting that the DDA leave the building. The letter also requested that the DDA pay him the current month’s rent directly instead of paying the property manager, which Woodard had earlier requested in order to ensure the smooth running of the building.
In other words, it was a mess, but now, with strong owners with very deep pockets, the Dark Period is just a memory.
“The original condo owners are very excited, because this really protects their investment,” King said. “Because, if the lights go out and the security system goes down and the fire suppression goes down, I think the building would be effectively condemned for the residents to be able to stay there. They wouldn’t tear it down, but how could you live there, because it would no longer be fit for living. It would have been a terrible thing.”
King, who is now managing the residential, master and commercial associations and is also selling the condo units, intimated that Loudermilk, who came to the project without any kind of similar experience, was out of his element, especially once the bank collapsed.
“WhenRialtobought the loan and ultimately foreclosed on the property, I told them there were three things they needed to do to get the project on the right heading,” he said. “One was a commitment to complete all the units, because the building could not run on 10 sold units. Two was that the parking had to be addressed and three was they had to offer financing.”
Now, all 51 units are complete, financing is offered by LoanSouth and each unit has a deeded parking space in a secure, closed lot with an enclosed walkway acrossEllis Streetso residents will not have to brave the elements or the undesirables that populate downtownAugusta, especially after dark.
Such a feature, King said, is a major benefit for those seeking to put down roots in the downtown area, and with nearly 200 downtown apartments to rent and only one empty unit, he knows there is a market for downtown living.
“You can go to city after city – and it’s no secret thatAugusta,Georgiais not on the cutting edge – and the arts people come, then the hip crowd that wants to rent,” he said. “So people want to live downtown – that’s not even a question, that’s an Einstein certainty – but people were asking all the time…I want to buy. Show me a home I can buy downtown.”
That kind of dynamic, he said, helps move a city forward.
“One very good thing about that besides just the whole upward pressure is that they’ll be vocal,” he said. “They’ll be like, hey – we want things maintained downtown. We want things that will help further the case for downtown.”
And the downtown is the heart of any urban area.
“Is there a city worth living in that doesn’t have a great downtown?” he asked.
For the last eight years, Historic Augusta has been showcasing downtown living with an eye toward preservation with its annual Loft Tour. According to Programs and Marketing Director Julia Jackson, this year’s tour covers the spectrum.
On one end there’s586 Broad Streetand307 James Brown Boulevard, two buildings that Historic Augusta is actually trying to sell to a preservation-minded buyer.
“Those two are very interesting,” she said. “They’re raw and they need to be preserved. They’re a good example of the ‘before.’”
A good example of the “after,” she said, is931 Broad Street.
“The owners live on the third floor, and it is wonderful,” she said. “They won a preservation award for their work. It’s a wonderful example of a private residence.”
The Loft Tour always tries to include working space as well as residential space, andJacksonsaid that this year there’s a good example of working space in982 Broad Street, which is where the Wier/Stewart firm is currently located.
“What’s sort of unique about that on the Tour is that it’s an ultra modern interpretation of a historic structure,” she said. “They preserved the historic features – the ceiling, the facade and so on – but they really made it their own with their contemporary interior.”
Though the Whites Building is not on the Loft Tour, which runs from 6-9 p.m. on Friday, May 4 and from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 5 ($15 in advance or $20 during the tour) it will nevertheless be open during the tour if people who missed the ribbon cutting want to check out how the renovation ended up.
Currently, only 10 units are listed in order to limit the supply.
“If we sell a two bedroom now, we’ll put another two bedroom on the market,” King said. And although nothing is official, he said there’s a possibilityRialtowill develop the warehouse building across the street.
“There’s no commitment, but there is talk,” he said.
And while the building has been changed to reflect its new endeavor, it continues to possess the charm of the old store, including the high ceilings, tall windows and refinished wood floors that retain the patina of the department store traffic.
Units range from $119,000 to $250,000, getting more expensive the higher you get off the ground.
“From this location – within two blocks in each direction there are 10 restaurants,” King said. “I work downtown and I walk to lunch every day. I walk to dinner sometimes at night. This is the center of all the things that I like to do inAugusta. The vast majority of them are downtown.”
Woodard agreed.
“Downtown is a melting pot where everyone lives,” she said. “There’s room for everyone, but you have to have home ownership, because that gives you continuity and stability. There are people who have put their stake in the ground and said, ‘We’re here to stay.’”
And while Woodard and the DDA have tackled downtown issues like parking and litter, safety continues to be an issue for many, including King.
“It’s really fun being downtown during the day,” he said. “Nighttime is a different thing.”
It’s a common complaint.
“Certainly after 11:00 p.m. it’s not for me,” he said. “I’ll walk down the street at 8:00 at night and go to a restaurant – I have no problem with that at all. But at 11:00?”
Which is why he’s so high on the building’s secured parking and its security features. Swipe cards get you into the exclusive residential areas, and even package deliveries work smoothly.
“You can be anyplace when your cell phone rings and you can buzz them in so they can leave the package in the mailroom,” he said.
And like the new slogan goes, the city is at its doorstep.
You Might Also Like:
“It’s been a long journey,” said DDA Executive Director Margaret Woodard, who’s not just executive director of the DDA, which is housed in the building, but also one of the original group of condo owners. “There hasn’t been a condominium project built for 20-25 years sinceRiver Place.”
At the ribbon cutting, Woodard could barely contain her enthusiasm for the project.
“Tonight is really a rebirth and renaissance of a project that two years ago had a very uncertain future,” she said.
Because it was a ribbon cutting, there was lots of ceremony and plenty of people with something to say. Officials from Rialto Capital Management, the real estate group that snatched the project from a very real abyss after the original developer couldn’t finish the project, spoke of the joys and challenges of bringing the old building back to life, and the mayor thanked them for investing inAugusta.
Ultimately, though, the crowd just wanted to experience the reveal, to ride the elevator and see once and for all what a renovated department store looks like when developers turn it into high-end living space
Originally a beloved Augusta institution with a long history downtown, the JB Whites store abandoned 936 Broad Street in the late 1970s when just about everything else was abandoning Broad Street, and like just about everything else on Broad Street, the building sat vacant for years.
In 1999, Augusta Renaissance Partners, a group that included Clay and Braye Boardman, Tommy Blanchard, Julian Roberts and Turner Simkins, announced a plan to put 36 apartments along with retail and office space into the building, but by 2000, the local political climate was too uncertain for them to continue.CurtisBaptistChurchhad just convinced the Commission to deny an alcohol license for a downtown restaurant, even though it was outside of the distance requirement from the church – a scary precedent for anyone contemplating a restaurant or nightclub – and the city was also in the midst of changing administrators.
In 2001, the group received a grant to fix the front entrance and it also restored the walkway overEllis Street, an element of the building almost as iconic as the famous water tower.
In spite of all the heavy hitters, the project languished and was taken over in October 2007 byAtlantabusinessman Sherwin Loudermilk and his business partner Mike Raeisghasem. Together, they planned to renovate the 80,000 square-foot building by constructing more than 50 condo units above the ground floor office and retail space.
They invested $9 million into the project and had finished 10 condos when their bank, Duluth-based Haven Trust, was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in late 2008.
FDIC protection helped shield depositors and investors, but it did not extend to the project’s construction loan. The project stalled, and despite Loudermilk’s repeated offers to bring new investors to the 
project, the FDIC, which held the property as a loan asset, declined to bring him back into the project.
In November of 2009 the building was auctioned on the courthouse steps, but drew only one bid of $800,000, well short of the $1.5 million minimum bid.
Nine months later, Rialto Capital Management, a Miami-based real estate company known for investing in distressed properties and mortgage-backed securities, foreclosed on the project and started over.
“This is a company that had the expertise, the wherewithal and the purse strings to give downtownAugustathe signature project it deserves,” Woodard said, and though ultimately they did just that, there was no guarantee at all that they would continue the project. Many such projects are simply shuttered.
Paul King, president of Rex Property & Land which managed the master and residential associations, calls the time after the bank seizure the Dark Period.
“We were really in a crisis,” he said. “There wasn’t enough money coming in to keep the lights on and stuff.”
In the midst of this Dark Period, Loudermilk, who said he felt Woodard was acting against his best interests by talking to the FDIC and seeking outside developers to take over the project, sent a letter requesting that the DDA leave the building. The letter also requested that the DDA pay him the current month’s rent directly instead of paying the property manager, which Woodard had earlier requested in order to ensure the smooth running of the building.
In other words, it was a mess, but now, with strong owners with very deep pockets, the Dark Period is just a memory.
“The original condo owners are very excited, because this really protects their investment,” King said. “Because, if the lights go out and the security system goes down and the fire suppression goes down, I think the building would be effectively condemned for the residents to be able to stay there. They wouldn’t tear it down, but how could you live there, because it would no longer be fit for living. It would have been a terrible thing.”
King, who is now managing the residential, master and commercial associations and is also selling the condo units, intimated that Loudermilk, who came to the project without any kind of similar experience, was out of his element, especially once the bank collapsed.
“WhenRialtobought the loan and ultimately foreclosed on the property, I told them there were three things they needed to do to get the project on the right heading,” he said. “One was a commitment to complete all the units, because the building could not run on 10 sold units. Two was that the parking had to be addressed and three was they had to offer financing.”
Now, all 51 units are complete, financing is offered by LoanSouth and each unit has a deeded parking space in a secure, closed lot with an enclosed walkway acrossEllis Streetso residents will not have to brave the elements or the undesirables that populate downtownAugusta, especially after dark.
Such a feature, King said, is a major benefit for those seeking to put down roots in the downtown area, and with nearly 200 downtown apartments to rent and only one empty unit, he knows there is a market for downtown living.
“You can go to city after city – and it’s no secret thatAugusta,Georgiais not on the cutting edge – and the arts people come, then the hip crowd that wants to rent,” he said. “So people want to live downtown – that’s not even a question, that’s an Einstein certainty – but people were asking all the time…I want to buy. Show me a home I can buy downtown.”
That kind of dynamic, he said, helps move a city forward.
“One very good thing about that besides just the whole upward pressure is that they’ll be vocal,” he said. “They’ll be like, hey – we want things maintained downtown. We want things that will help further the case for downtown.”
And the downtown is the heart of any urban area.
“Is there a city worth living in that doesn’t have a great downtown?” he asked.
For the last eight years, Historic Augusta has been showcasing downtown living with an eye toward preservation with its annual Loft Tour. According to Programs and Marketing Director Julia Jackson, this year’s tour covers the spectrum.
On one end there’s586 Broad Streetand307 James Brown Boulevard, two buildings that Historic Augusta is actually trying to sell to a preservation-minded buyer.
“Those two are very interesting,” she said. “They’re raw and they need to be preserved. They’re a good example of the ‘before.’”
A good example of the “after,” she said, is931 Broad Street.
“The owners live on the third floor, and it is wonderful,” she said. “They won a preservation award for their work. It’s a wonderful example of a private residence.”
The Loft Tour always tries to include working space as well as residential space, andJacksonsaid that this year there’s a good example of working space in982 Broad Street, which is where the Wier/Stewart firm is currently located.
“What’s sort of unique about that on the Tour is that it’s an ultra modern interpretation of a historic structure,” she said. “They preserved the historic features – the ceiling, the facade and so on – but they really made it their own with their contemporary interior.”
Though the Whites Building is not on the Loft Tour, which runs from 6-9 p.m. on Friday, May 4 and from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 5 ($15 in advance or $20 during the tour) it will nevertheless be open during the tour if people who missed the ribbon cutting want to check out how the renovation ended up.
Currently, only 10 units are listed in order to limit the supply.
“If we sell a two bedroom now, we’ll put another two bedroom on the market,” King said. And although nothing is official, he said there’s a possibilityRialtowill develop the warehouse building across the street.
“There’s no commitment, but there is talk,” he said.
And while the building has been changed to reflect its new endeavor, it continues to possess the charm of the old store, including the high ceilings, tall windows and refinished wood floors that retain the patina of the department store traffic.
Units range from $119,000 to $250,000, getting more expensive the higher you get off the ground.
“From this location – within two blocks in each direction there are 10 restaurants,” King said. “I work downtown and I walk to lunch every day. I walk to dinner sometimes at night. This is the center of all the things that I like to do inAugusta. The vast majority of them are downtown.”
Woodard agreed.
“Downtown is a melting pot where everyone lives,” she said. “There’s room for everyone, but you have to have home ownership, because that gives you continuity and stability. There are people who have put their stake in the ground and said, ‘We’re here to stay.’”
And while Woodard and the DDA have tackled downtown issues like parking and litter, safety continues to be an issue for many, including King.
“It’s really fun being downtown during the day,” he said. “Nighttime is a different thing.”
It’s a common complaint.
“Certainly after 11:00 p.m. it’s not for me,” he said. “I’ll walk down the street at 8:00 at night and go to a restaurant – I have no problem with that at all. But at 11:00?”
Which is why he’s so high on the building’s secured parking and its security features. Swipe cards get you into the exclusive residential areas, and even package deliveries work smoothly.
“You can be anyplace when your cell phone rings and you can buzz them in so they can leave the package in the mailroom,” he said.
And like the new slogan goes, the city is at its doorstep.You Might Also Like:
