Lofts, hotel, apartments among suggestions for downtown Macon tower

Loft apartments, a boutique hotel and commercial offices are among the redevelopment proposals for a downtown Macon high-rise.

Macon-Bibb County officials could soon approve a developer to transform the Willie C. Hill Government Center Annex building into a commercial and residential development. The 62,000-square-foot Cherry Street building is now home to commercial and government offices.

The County Commission is expected to vote Tuesday on a $65,000 fourth phase of an agreement with real estate investment management company Jones Lang Lasalle that would include working out details on developing the project.

An earlier phase of the Jones Lang Lasalle study showed the building could have 56 apartment units along with a small retail space on the ground floor.

“(Residential) is a really strong market in downtown Macon,” said Jeremy Becker, vice president of Jones Lang Lasalle’s Public Institutions Group. “I think the general expectation for (the building) is most likely residential, but we’ll be working on all the proposals. It’s a historic building. It’s a pre-war building in the middle of a multifamily market.”

One of the proposals submitted to Macon-Bibb came from a team that includes Dunwody/Beeland Architects. It includes plans for commercial space, about 50 one- and two-bedroom apartments and some luxury suites on the top floor, Macon architect Gene Dunwody Sr. said.

Another option listed by Dunwody’s team is to turn the building into a boutique hotel or a combination of the hotel with the top several floors becoming apartments or condominiums. With the likely renovation of the City Auditorium across the street, a hotel would tie well into those upgrades, Dunwody said.

The building, first named after the Bankers Health and Life Insurance Co., was designed in 1940 by Dunwody’s father. A key to the proposal will be maintaining the historic nature of the building as well as offering to allow a longtime tenant — Bob Lewis & Associates Inc. — to remain in the building.

“We have the original plans and spent a lot of time figuring out what could be done,” Dunwody said. “It’s a compact floor plan.”

The other proposal received by Macon-Bibb came from MMI Capital, which submitted plans for loft apartments and several commercial storefronts. That proposal also would have NewTown Macon take a small ownership role in the development, said NewTown Macon president and CEO Josh Rogers.

“I’m superexcited about the projects in general,” he said. “They could draw about 60 new residents and recruit new storefront tenants.”

NewTown would likely play a role in either proposal by providing a real estate development loan fund, Rogers said.

“We loan money to real estate developers downtown to reduce the amount of equities they have to contribute and make the projects more enticing,” he said.

Commissioner Gary Bechtel said he was pleased that the two responses for the potential development came from local companies. Now it’s now time to dig deep into the details, he said.

“I look forward to (Jeremy Becker’s) work on it and response and the (review) committee’s evaluation, and hopefully we can make a decision and put the building into the use to enhance downtown,” said Bechtel, who is serving on the review panel.

The building costs about $160,000 a year to operate, and it also has about $1 million in capital needs, Robert Ryals, director of the Macon-Bibb Facilities Management Department, told county officials last year.

The county has already spent $84,000 on the first three phases of the study by Jones Lang Lasalle.

This story was originally published July 4, 2016 at 9:43 AM with the headline "Lofts, hotel, apartments among suggestions for downtown Macon tower."