Between the brown-bagged bottles, graffiti and the shards of smashed fluorescent lights, it’s clear the old Atlantic Cotton Mills have become a haven for vandals and the homeless.
The complex of sturdy brick buildings that was built in 1889 and added onto in the 1920s and ’30s has fallen into disrepair.
The roof leaks now. Rain puddles up around islands of refuse and unrefined cotton, rippling and rotting the heart-of-pine wood floors. Time is another enemy.
If something doesn’t change soon, there will be little more to do with the 80,000-square-foot complex than tear it down.
“Once water gets in, you have about a year to do something,” Josh Rogers said. “Water destroys these buildings.”
Rogers is the executive director of Historic Macon, a group that advocates for the preservation of Macon’s historic structures. The group has organized a public tour of the building and its grounds at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, and there’s a special walk-through for members of Macon City Council beforehand.
Historic Macon hopes to engage the community and gain the support of the council.
“We have to ask ourselves, ‘What is the cost of doing nothing?’ ’’ Rogers lamented, adding that the only option to redevelopment is demolition, which he said would put 100,000 tons of waste in the landfill.
Falling apart
Last summer, Macon Mayor Robert Reichert tried to rush a resolution through City Council to meet the application deadline for a $1.5 million grant from the state’s Department of Community Affairs. If the city was successful in landing the grant, the money would have been used to for the mill’s redevelopment.
However, some council members were upset the money was not designated to improve their wards. After rejecting the original resolution, Councilmen Mike Cranford and James Timley amended the resolution to allow the money to be used for other projects and gave final control of the money to the mayor and the council. Even so, Timley still voted against the resolution.
In January, the DCA rejected Macon’s application because it was not clear the money would be used for a qualified project.
The state has now opened a new round of funding with an April 15 application deadline.
Without the council’s support, the grant application goes nowhere. If that happens, advocates fear that in this economic climate, the redevelopment project at Atlantic Cotton Mills also goes nowhere.
George Eichler, a real estate agent for the Ramsbottom Co., said the mill is ripe for redevelopment. He represents the developer, Landmark Development, a company based in Winston-Salem, N.C., that specializes in historic properties.
“These cotton mills are perfect for converting to lofts,” he said, gesturing toward the long, wide body of the building — its insides still haunted by the large, steel cotton gins from the early 1900s and random, errant spools of spun thread.
Outside, knee-deep in overgrown weeds, Rogers daydreams.
He sees the main building restored and full of life, its walls preserved and the construction of brand-new residential lofts. The cotton warehouses lining the perimeter would become multifamily houses, situated on landscaped grounds outfitted with a running track. Around the pond, the grass and trees would be groomed to give residents a serene place to relax.
Save the mills, save the neighborhood
When Atlantic Cotton Mills was built more than 120 years ago, there were no building codes, Rogers said, so the planners “over-engineered” the structure to support the rows of heavy machinery.
The exterior walls are solid brick, nearly two feet thick. The floors, which are several layers deep, and the ceiling are held up by massive, century-old timbers that arch overhead.
If the grant comes through this time, Rogers said it would take about two years to complete the renovation project.
Giles O’Neal lives nearby and has seen the elderly residents of an assisted- living facility walk through the neighborhood to get to the Kroger grocery store on Pio Nono Avenue, next to the mill.
A couple years ago, an attempted carjacking along that stretch resulted in a shooting. For O’Neal, the redevelopment would make the area safer.
“It’s a no-brainer,” he said. “It would upgrade the whole neighborhood.”
Amy and Jim Stallings are a young couple in the neighborhood who also see the trickle-down impact of the reimagined space.
“Our city needs all the additional financial help it can get,” Amy Stallings said.
The $1.5 million grant would bridge the gap between the $11 million the developer has raised for this project and the $12.5 million needed to pursue it. Rogers is quick to point out that $8 million of those funds would be used for construction costs alone. The revitalized property would bring in more than $250,000 a year in property taxes once various local and state tax credits available to the developers expired.
“It’s very important, not only in its size but in its relation to this side of town,” Historic Macon board member Lars Anderson said. “It would become an anchor in an area that needs help.”
Bluntly, Jim Stallings said, “our neighborhood has pockets of problems. We need this before it gets worse.”
To contact writer Chris Horne, call 744-4494.
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