EDITORIAL: Changing the face of Macon one development at a time
There is a feeling that downtown Macon is back, but feelings don't fill tables at restaurants or seats at the theater — people do and after a couple of setbacks, the announcement that another loft development was headed to downtown was more than good news. This $25 million development will be special by taking a historic block now blighted and making it brand new again and a magnet for other ideas.
Sierra Development and Southern Pines Plantation haven't been feeling the love lately. They've been criticized for the choice of colors of one of its developments and the yet-to-be-approved proposal on Zebulon Road. However, in the world of development — and most everything else — if you're not getting criticism you're probably not doing anything. We are not advocating for the Zebulon Road project. Not all ideas are good ones. That decision is in the hands of Planning & Zoning.
The proposal for downtown involves the 900 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard between Plum and Poplar streets. The only buildings there are the old Rescue Mission and the famed Capricorn Studios where the echoes of Southern Rock still bounce off the brick walls from decades ago. The other partners in the plan are NewTown Macon and Mercer University. Mercer plans to operate the Capricorn facility as a music venue. While we're not exactly sure what that means, it could mean a substantial investment. Recording studios do not come cheap, but it would round out a curriculum that could fit well in where many of the jobs in the state are going and attract those jobs to Macon.
The university already has TV production facilities on par with ESPN and a broadcast facility. Training sound engineers for studio and movie work could be the next frontier in an all-digital world. With a community in the adjacent lofts full of other creative professionals to feed off of, such an arrangement could be profitable in several respects.
What may be more exciting than the loft project itself is the possibility of what can spread because of its existence. In every community that's shown substantial growth, from Greenville, South Carolina to Greensboro, North Carolina to Atlanta and Augusta, there have always been signature developers, your John Portmans and your Herman Russells. Jim Daws, president of Sierra Development, has already left his fingerprints on the city and we expect to see more from him and his partners.
This story was originally published December 8, 2015 at 5:09 PM with the headline "EDITORIAL: Changing the face of Macon one development at a time ."