A downtown Macon eyesore is about to get new life. ‘People love a new store.’
At a busy intersection across the Ocmulgee River from Interstate 16 at the edge of downtown Macon, a still-standing marquee at a defunct, demolished Exxon food mart no longer bears gas prices.
A sign with two words on it in black letters that spell out “STORE CLOSED” almost seems like a joke.
There is no store. There is no building other than the canopy over what used to be fuel-pump islands.
The Exxon mart that once sat at the corner of Spring Street and Riverside Drive next to a Pizza Hut and across from a Krystal was built in 1989.
The place was sold about eight years ago by locally owned Walthall Oil, and the store has in recent years been torn down by its new owner. Save for the canopy over the old gas pumps, where homeless people sometimes rest in the shade, the place has sat vacant for more than a year.
But that could be changing soon.
The property’s owner, Bharatkumar Amin, who runs a small chain of convenience marts, told The Telegraph recently that in coming months he plans to build a Bi-Lo Mart there similar to one he has at the corner of Pio Nono Avenue and Eisenhower Parkway.
“People love a new store,” Amin said.
Amin’s store on Eisenhower has a Sunoco gas station out front. He said his new Bi-Lo at Spring and Riverside could be a Shell or Chevron gas mart.
This story was originally published January 23, 2020 at 10:23 AM.