East Macon neighborhood redevelopment takes another step

Two years after an overflowing crowd gathered in a cramped Kings Park community center following a community cleanup, a celebration was held Wednesday morning for a new facility.

The new community center named after former Bibb County Commissioner Sam Hart will be built on the site of the former community center. Construction on the 2,300 square foot building is expected to be completed within nine months.

The 3283 Kingston Court center will have an activity room, computer lab, warming kitchen, office and restrooms. The contractor on the project is Macon-based Stafford Builders & Consultants.

The center replaces two buildings that were used by other agencies and then closed under the former Bibb County government because of high costs. Funding for the new center comes from $300,000 of blight funds from Commissioner Elaine Lucas, who represents the Kings Park neighborhood.

The center’s playground has also received some upgrades.

“We are pleased that we could eliminate those old unsafe structures and and come up with a new plan for a community center,” she said.

The Sam Hart Community Center is the centerpiece of the revitalization efforts led by neighborhood residents and past and present local officials and others, said Kings Park Neighborhood Association President Theresa Hugley.

“It was a dream and now it is a reality,” she said about the new center.

People attending Wednesday’s groundbreaking credited Hart, who represented the subdivision during his tenure on the County Commission, with advocating for improvements to the property.

The east Macon neighborhood has been beset by blight over the years. The new center ties into other blight remediation around the neighborhood with about 15 houses either torn down or scheduled to be demolished. About $266,000 has been dedicated to removing the blighted homes.

The community center should become a catalyst for more development in the neighborhood, Macon-Bibb blight consultant Cass Hatcher said.

But while progress is underway, more needs to be done to fully restore the neighborhood, Mayor Robert Reichert said.

“This is going to be a sustained effort,” he said. “It’s going to be a long time because we let Kings Park go too long.”

Reichert added, “We hope to accelerate the pace at which this neighborhood recovers.”

This story was originally published June 14, 2017 at 11:53 AM with the headline "East Macon neighborhood redevelopment takes another step."