County withdraws $600,000 development grant

Columbia County commissioners on Tuesday retracted an economic incentive award for an Evans shopping center.

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The commission in January approved a $600,000 grant to Collet & Associates for intersection improvements as part of the second construction phase for Mullins Crossing.

Developers had announced that Hobby Lobby intended to anchor the second phase of the development, which already features Target and Kohl's department stores.

However, Hobby Lobby has since opened in the former Ashley's furniture store at the Augusta Exchange shopping center. Because Hobby Lobby removed itself as a possible anchor, construction on a second development phase has stalled, county officials said.

The incentive was awarded based on anticipated tax revenues a Hobby Lobby might have generated, according to county documents.

Collett & Associates may again ask for the incentive once a new tenant has been named, according to the documents.

Though commissioners retracted the economic incentive, they awarded numerous grants on Tuesday to area non-profit groups.

Officials approved more than $85,000 in donations to various groups, with money that was included in the budget or funded through commissioners' discretionary funds.

The CSRA Alliance for Fort Gordon, Fort Discovery and Project Access each will receive $25,000. Commissioner Scott Dean allocated $10,550 of discretionary funds for the Veterans Memorial Wall in Grovetown. Commissioners Trey Allen and Charles Allen combined their discretionary funds to donate $1,250 for the CSRA Wine Festival. The Alzheimer's Association of Augusta and the Evans Lions Club each received $1,000 from commission Chairman Ron Cross' discretionary funds.

Also at the commission meeting, officials took steps to make sure a Miami-based contractor no longer will receive any county funds until they settle ongoing litigation with the county and complete a late project.

Also on Tuesday, commissioners temporarily banned Tran Construction Inc. from bidding on any county construction projects.

Last month, county officials decided to sue Tran Construction for failing to pay the bid bond on a water line project.

The company initially won a $1.89 million bid to install water lines along Hereford Farm Road. However, commissioners said, Tran executives failed to comply with the bid in a timely manner and the county sought compensation for their unresponsiveness in the form of the bid bond, which is a legally binding contract that requires Tran to pay the county 10 percent of the bid or cover the difference between their bid and the next lowest bidder, whichever is least expensive, officials said.

Tran currently is about six weeks behind schedule on the construction of a retaining wall for the county's Fleet Management division.