Construction has begun on a new 10-story arena in Augusta, GA, replacing the old James Brown Arena. The arena will host a variety of events and is expected to open in 2027. Additionally, DeKalb County, GA is building two new schools to alleviate overcrowding and provide modern facilities for students.
Nations Group render
A render of the New Augusta Arena, Augusta, Ga.
With the old James Brown Arena in Augusta, Ga. now gone and officials looking forward to getting started on its replacement, smooth sand and heavy construction equipment mark the location that once played host to concerts and other large-scale entertainment events.
The new arena will tower 10 stories tall and hold approximately 100 events a year from musical and family productions to hockey games, officials told Augusta's WRDW-TV on May 20, 2025. It will do so by offering a variety of premium options, including suites, box seating and party facilities.
And visitors can take in local flavors with concessions featuring some of Augusta's most popular restaurants.
Currently, the work site is flat and noisy as contractors are in the backfill and settlement phase of the work, packing the foundation before the construction goes vertically in the coming months.
"Once we get done with this settlement period, which is a waiting period before you see anything happen as we go into foundations and begin structural erection of the new arena, things will start to occur very fast again … and you'll start to see a lot more personnel on site and … a lot of heavy equipment moving," said Jon Rawlins, the project manager for Nations Group, an owners representation firm that is overseeing the new arena project manager. "It'll be an exciting time here come the end of this year and into 2026."
Nations Group has offices in Scottsdale, Ariz. and Charlotte, N.C.
Augusta's new arena will be linked to the nearby Bell Auditorium by a connector building that will house shared facilities like a box office and kitchen. But Rawlins cautioned that the connector will be more than just a walk-through.
"So, there'll be one main box office, which is one of the efficiencies of this building," he said in speaking with WRDW-TV.
He added that the connecting structure between the arena and auditorium also include combined offices, a kitchen, and a loading dock, a design feature created to save on building costs.
Municipal leaders said they expect the new 10,000-seat arena, funded by a voter-approved sales tax, to open in 2027.
"We're right on time and on budget — that's the main thing," said Brad Usry of the Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority, adding that the size of the arena will be just right for the Augusta market.
Two different consulting firms performed studies, and both determined that 10,000 seats would be optimal for the new arena.
"We've never had an arena that sat 10,000 people that sold out," he told WRDW-TV. "We're gonna sell it out."
Usry also noted that once the new venue is open, local hockey fans will once again be able to enjoy the sport in Augusta.
Although city officials are not ready to announce a team yet, they are working on a deal, and it will be a very exciting announcement when the time comes, Usry said.
Even before the new arena opens, it will be a boon to the local economy.
There will soon be 300 people working at the construction site, Usry said, and they will all need to eat lunch at one of the nearby eateries in downtown Augusta. In addition, many of them will be in from out of town and need temporary lodgings.
Despite being razed, the old James Brown Arena lives on, in a way, as the seats, scoreboards, and other fixtures were either sold or given away prior to the demolition.
Much of its building materials has been recycled, including both the steel and the concrete, the latter of which was broken up and used as fill for the hole that remained on site.
For now, the planned facility is known as the "new Augusta arena" instead of the new James Brown Arena, honoring the late soul singer and Augusta native; an official name has not yet been selected as the naming rights are still being negotiated.
Two New Schools Going Up in Suburban Atlanta County
DeKalb County School District officials on the eastern side of Atlanta held a groundbreaking ceremony May 13, 2025, as work began on both a new middle school and high school that will serve students in Doraville, Chamblee, Brookhaven and other unincorporated parts of the county.
Devon Horton, superintendent of the DeKalb County School District (DCSD), was joined by a host of local officials, including members of the county's Board of Education and Doraville Mayor Joseph Geierman, to celebrate the start of construction for the still-to-be-named schools on the site of the former Sequoyah Middle School.
The two facilities will encompass a total of 485,446 sq. ft. and share some building spaces, according to a fact sheet handed out by DCSD officials during the event.
"Due to tight site constraints and competing program needs, the project focuses around balancing dedicated space for students of different ages with shared amenities that can make the best use of space," said officials with Goodwyn Mills Cawood in Atlanta and DLR Group, a national architectural firm, which led the design of the new schools. "The primary goals of the design were to be inclusive, sustainable, safe, adaptable and a good value for taxpayer funds."
The estimated total cost for the schools is almost $228.7 million, which will be paid through the county's Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) funds, Horton said.
According to the DCSD, the new schools will include:
• dedicated middle school and high school general education classrooms, science labs and fine arts rooms;
• check-in and administration areas for each facility, with secure vestibules;
• separate media centers for each school;
• a high school auditorium and black box theater with indoor/outdoor connections;
• three middle school career technology labs;
• nine high school career technology labs;
• three gymnasiums, a walking track, an auxiliary high school gym and a dedicated middle school gym; and
• a shared kitchen with separate cafeterias for middle school and high school students.
Officials with DCSD said the process for naming the schools is ongoing, as are the establishing of a mascot and colors for each one.
Andrew Ziffer, a District 1 school board member, told the Decatur Champion that the construction project will help relieve overcrowding in nearby schools where classrooms and cafeterias are "packed and over capacity."
"For too long, these families have waited for what every community deserves — quality schools," he said. "Now, DeKalb County School District proudly says, ‘We see you, we support you and we are building these schools for you.' It's time we gave our students a space to learn and grow in an environment built for them, not retrofitted around them."
Sequoia Middle School, which is currently in use, is more than six decades old, according to Horton. It also has more than 1,700 students, 92 percent of whom identify as Hispanic or Latino, he said.
"This is more than just a fresh coat of paint; it is a new chapter in our story, one that honors our past while embracing the promises of tomorrow," Horton said.
The current construction timeline for the new project sets 2027 as the estimated opening for the middle school and 2029 for the high school, the Champion reported.
Today's top stories
