Shuttered hotel in downtown Macon will be demolished to ring in 2025. What will replace it?

Macon plans to ring in the new year with a bang: A 16-story blighted hotel downtown will be demolished on New Year’s Day.

The Macon-Bibb County Commission approved a plan Tuesday to implode the now-vacant high rise at 108 First St. The city announced in a follow-up news release that the implosion will happen at 9 a.m. on Jan. 1.

Commissioners agreed to appropriate about $2.6 million for South Carolina demolition company Target Contractors to blow up structures on the property, which has sat vacant on Riverside Drive since 2017.

They bought the property, which also includes a parking deck, for about $4.5 million in 2023, with plans to eventually tear it down.

Five businesses tried to keep the building afloat since it opened as a Hilton hotel in 1970. Elvis had even spent the night on the property, which was built by Morris Lapidus, architect of Miami Beach’s iconic Art Deco-style Fontainebleau and Eden Roc hotels, according to previous reporting by The Telegraph.

After financial turmoil, “massive fraud” and “a mudbath of…mismanagement,” it closed under its final name Ramada Plaza in 2017, The Telegraph previously reported.

What will replace the lot?

The Urban Development Authority’s goal is to sell this property as a joint business prospect combined with green space across the street next to Barks N Brews, according to Chris Floore, the county’s chief communications officer.

The grassy field is known as Renaissance on the River, as it sits right along the Ocmulgee River.

“Having that site and this site, it becomes even more marketable for the whole area,” Floore said. “I think the idea right now is complimentary developments.”

This plan was just an idea though, and could change after the demolition, Floore added.

The contractor must completely restore the site within 180 days after receiving notice that all safety permits are approved to start the demolition. Those days would include “clean up, demobilization and other work necessary to return the project to its final state,” according to commission meeting minutes.

Surrounding property owners will be notified in the coming weeks about how to prepare for impacts of the demolition such as road closures and minimal dust, Floore said.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated after the city clarified the time for the implosion of the building.

This story was originally published November 21, 2024 at 1:40 PM.