News 12 at 6 o'clock / Monday, August 16, 2010

AUGUSTA---Augusta raised more than $30 million for the new Kroc Community Center. It is supposed to be a one stop shop for all your family needs...but new centers are popping up around town, and they all want your attention.

If you build it, will they come? Augusta's Kroc Center is entering a crowded field.

"Well, our biggest challenge is to define what we are," said Derek Dugan with the Kroc Center.

Crews are busy at work on the 85,000 sq. ft. center that promises a 400 seat theater and worship center. Plans also call for an indoor aquatic center.

"We're arts," said Dugan. "And education and recreation."

But consider the landscape. The Kroc Center will sit along Broad Street. A few blocks over off 15th Street, Paine College is preparing to start construction on an 80,000 sq. ft. HEAL, or Health Education Activities Learning Center.

If you head over to the Housing and Neighborhood Development office, they are pushing a Laney Walker Wellness Center.

"It is very similar," said Dugan of the projects. "But that's a good thing."

$2.5 million in SPLOST funds will jump-start the HEAL complex construction. There are no membership fees. Kroc Center membership is expected to be about $40 to $50 a month.

"If the programming is right and we do it to the best level we can," said Dugan, "people will come."

"I think that we can never do enough to promote health and wellness in our community," said Brandon Brown with Paine College.

"I think there's a place for everybody," said Donna Wickes, urban planner at the Housing and Neighborhood Development office. "I'm not sure where our place is going to be yet."

Construction begins on the HEAL Complex at the end of the year. Construction wraps up on the Kroc Center at the first of the year.

Donna will go before Augusta commissioners Tuesday seeking approval to apply for a $200,000 grant. That money will help the department begin planning for the wellness center.