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B2B Stories

Local gas station chain to expand with new Columbia County location

A locally-owned gas station and convenience store chain plans to open a new location next to Harvard Wine & Spirits at the corner of Old Evans Road and Martinez Boulevard. Gas World, which already has five other CSRA stores, including Walton Way, Dean’s Bridge Road, and Windsor Spring Road, will open its sixth store at 116 Old Evans Road in Martinez. The company specializes in buying and renovating older gas stations. It was founded by Deep Patel, who also founded Liquor Land, which has a few CSRA locations. Duckworth Development

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B2B Stories

Mondays with Rick: Preparing for the coming recession

  Dr. Rick Franza, Dean of the Hull College of Business, discusses a different, timely business topic each Monday in this column. This week he talks about preparing to successfully survive a recession. The interview has been edited for clarity and impact. ABD: In a recent survey of CFOs, 100 percent believe we’ll be in a recession in the next 9-12 months. There seems to be no question of if there will be a recession, just how bad it’ll be. How should businesses approach this? Rick: The lesson we learned

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B2B Stories

Uncertain economy creates a nightmare for a local trucking company

The past couple of years has been a nightmare for trucking companies, especially the smaller outfits like Jax Transportation in Aiken. “Our business dropped off 87 percent when covid shut down everything, owner Dean Cavero said. “It was a fiasco when goods weren’t moving. It took six months for us to see any relief.” He also owns Phoenix One Logistics which oversees the heavy haul logistics for Jax. But there wasn’t much hauling going on at that time. Now that the trucks are rolling again comes a new set of

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Consumer Stories

National bookstore chain reopens Aiken location

When Lance Danko needs stress relief, he goes book shopping, which is why he was happy when Books-A-Million reopened in Aiken late last week. Danko, administrator for Augusta University Health Imaging, and his wife have already visited the new store located at 1650 Richland Ave. West, Suite 195 near Rose’s and Hibbett Sports in the Kalmia Plaza shopping center. “It’s one of the few bookstores left besides Barnes & Noble in Augusta where you can really go in and look around,” he said. Books-A-Million had a store in the Aiken

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B2B Stories

Increased demand prompts popular pet care business to expand

On January 1 at midnight, Eric and Anne Dysinger began accepting pet boarding reservations for Masters Week. Thirty minutes later, they were completely booked. As a result of that demand, the Dysingers, owners of Paws in Paradise Luxury Resort & Spa, a 24/7 full-service facility, located at 4319 Evans to Locks Road in Evans, are expanding their business. Anne said they currently have more demand for their boarding and daycare services than they can handle. The couple has been forced to turn customers away due to a lack of space.

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Consumer Stories

Construction continues on the south Augusta townhome project

Oscar A. Jessie has made a multi-million dollar investment in a south Augusta housing development that will likely benefit existing businesses in that area and even spur the construction of new ones. Jessie, a local real estate developer and owner of GreenSpace Communities, LLC is currently building the Orchard Landing luxury townhome development on a nearly eight-acre property located at 3699 Peach Orchard Road. He said the three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath homes sell for between $180,000 to $205,000, 10 percent below market value. “That provides homeowners instant equity as soon as they

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B2B Stories

Local shopping center sold for more than $20 million

For nearly 17 years, Eddie and Carol Kennedy have owned and operated Great Deals on Furniture in the Village Plaza shopping center on Bobby Jones Expressway. The busy center, previously owned by an Ohio-based company, has been sold for a little over $20 million. Carol said she and her husband haven’t met the new owners yet, but they have received emails and phone calls from them. The couple isn’t worried about possible changes that could affect their business. “We had a great working relationship with the previous owners, and we

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B2B Stories

Augusta coffee pioneer opens new downtown location

The people who started the local coffee scene opened their third coffee shop today in downtown Augusta. Buona Caffe opened this morning at 520 Reynolds Street. Although it’s a new location for a retail shop, the building has been home to Buona’s bean roasting since 2018. The building also serves as a warehouse, an equipment showroom, and a training classroom. Owner, John Curry said opening a coffee shop at the location had always been part of the plan for the building, which is located next to the Augusta Museum of

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Consumer Stories

Japanese restaurant to open near busy Martinez intersection

Hibachi Grill Express, a new Japanese restaurant, will open in a familiar Martinez location at 3861 Washington Road near the Bobby Jones Expressway intersection. For many years, the building was occupied by Taco Bell. Hibachi will serve a variety of dishes, including egg rolls, fried rice, and teriyaki chicken. Customers can either dine in the restaurant or order and pick up food at the drive-thru window. All meals cost less than $15. ABD previously reported the restaurant was expected to open by Valentine’s Day, but it still hasn’t opened. Thanks

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B2B Stories

Simon says: Augusta economic forecast gloomy as jobs continue post-pandemic lag

Employment in the Augusta MSA has increased by 4,000 jobs in the last year, through April – the latest available data, but remains more than 6,000 jobs off the pre-pandemic peak (see chart below). As I have written about in recent articles (April 13, May 4), this makes Augusta one of the worst-performing economies in Georgia. The more bad news was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on May 18. Job openings in Georgia declined by 33,000 in March. Georgia was one of four states to see a decline,

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