Macon could buy local hotel to help ‘develop the entire east side’

If a local hotel doesn’t sell its building in six months, a Macon-Bibb County board will buy it to strengthen tourism and development in east Macon, a historically underserved area.

The hotel in agreement is Macon Marriott City Center at 240 Coliseum Drive, between the Macon Convention Center and the Macon Coliseum. Its purchase would spur development along the tourism and entertainment strip on Coliseum Drive.

The Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority will use the following six months to develop improvements to the hotel, in the case it purchases it in six months, according to Alex Morrison, the authority’s executive director.

“It will allow us the flexibility to make the decisions to maximize that asset for our community as we’re looking to develop the entire east side,” Morrison said.

Another recent effort to improve the Coliseum Drive area includes Bicentennial Park, a grassy recreation area that opened in November across from the entertainment and tourism hubs near residences of middle to low income.

A Boston-based company, LCOF Macon Investments, currently owns the hotel, and the county owns the land it sits on, according to county property records.

“The (hotel) developer was at a point where they were needing to either make a move or refinance, and we were able to negotiate with them this option in lieu of a different financing option for them,” Morrison said.

The UDA agreed to buy the hotel for $13 million in six months if another entity doesn’t buy it. The decision approved a real estate option agreement with LCOF, which gives the UDA the right to buy the property.

While the UDA would then own the building and land, another entity other than the county would operate it, Morrison said.

“This will allow us to have maximum flexibility on leasing that convention center, making sure there’s coordination between our new arena and our convention center at the hotel on site,” he said.

Chris Floore, chief communications officer of the county, said the current hotel “does fairly well,” but the county wants to improve it.

“It’s going to give Macon-Bibb County as a whole control of the whole facility there,” Floore said. “We’re trying to build the new arena, we’ve got the old convention center, we’re trying to build a new convention center.”

Floore said the UDA believes the hotel will be more successful under the county’s ownership.

“We want to make sure the hotel is successful so we have a vested interest in controlling it,” Floore said.

This story was originally published December 17, 2025 at 6:00 AM.