Groundbreaking nears on downtown Macon hotel, upscale lofts, retail space

Construction on a large-scale, downtown Macon development is on track to start in the next couple of months.

The developers of Central City Commons provided an update Tuesday on the $50-plus million project located within the block surrounded by Poplar, Second, Plum and First streets. The development will include a 140 room Hyatt Place hotel, 87 upscale residential lofts with 27,000 square feet of retail office space, and two parking decks with 755 spaces.

The project is a joint venture of Tim Thornton, president of Thornton Realty Co., and Miller Heath III, CEO of MMI Capital LLC. The parking decks will be built with about $18 million in bonds issued by the Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority.

“We are hopefully about 60 days away from commencing construction on this project,” Heath said at Tuesday’s Macon-Bibb County Commission meeting. “We have finished our designs, we have approval through planning and zoning and have foundation permits for our hotel.”

Heath said they plan to have specific details within the next couple weeks about the stormwater upgrades needed to for Central City Commons. The time frame for construction is 18-24 months.

“We could have done a more modest, cheaper hotel a couple years ago, but we held out to do something nice,” Thornton said. “A lot of hotels or motels you see are wood construction, nothing wrong with that, but on both of these buildings we’re spending quite a bit extra to build steel and concrete so they’ll look good 50 years from now.”

New Year’s Eve

The commission’s Operations and Finance Committee moved ahead a measure that would provide $10,000 for a New Year’s Eve celebration in downtown Macon.

The resolution would help fund the New Year’s Eve Cherry Blossom Ball Drop, which could return in 2017 after a two-year hiatus. Mayor Robert Reichert said last year’s New Year’s Eve affair was not as successful as many would have liked.

Having the Cherry Blossom Festival back on board could help bring some life back to the event, he said.

Along with the signature ball drop at midnight, the celebration would feature fireworks, a DJ and pink LED lights, according to a proposal.

The final vote on the New Year’s Eve resolution is expected to take place at the July 1 County Commission meeting.

In other business Tuesday, commission committees also moved the following items to the July 1 agend:

▪  A $2.5 million budget for the Economic and Community Development Department.

The budget includes the $1.6 million for the Community Development Block Grant program as well as funding for a couple of other programs that use federal money.

Several commissioners said Tuesday they’d like to see a wider variety of neighborhood organizations and other agencies getting assistance from the department to to apply for the grants that serve the disadvantaged.

President Donald Trump’s administration is proposing eliminating the block grant program in future budgets.

▪  A $550,000 contract to build the second phase of the Central City Park skate park.

▪  Finalizing an agreement with Contour Airlines to provide flight service out of Middle Georgia Regional Airport. Flights between Macon and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area are scheduled to start Aug. 17.

▪  Allowing the mayor to execute an agreement with Georgia Behavioral Health Services to build two houses for adults with developmental disabilities. The $758,123 project would be paid for through Home Investment Partnership Funds.

This story was originally published July 25, 2017 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Groundbreaking nears on downtown Macon hotel, upscale lofts, retail space."