When hundreds of pickleball aficionados travel to Macon Mall for tournaments there’s one question organizers hear over and over.
“Where can I go to get something to eat?”
In the coming months, Rhythm & Rally’s general manager John Roberts will be able to point to a 1,200-square-foot restaurant on the upper floor of what is billed as the world’s largest indoor pickleball facility.
It’s the latest development in the revitalization of the old shopping center that also includes design work for a new government office and sale of one of the outparcel buildings to a food service company.
Sports Facilities Companies, which manages the pickleball courts, has its own food service division that will run the new bar and restaurant offering Americana fare.
“Every tournament we have I lament the money that’s walking out the door because this weekend we have 700 players,” Roberts told The Macon Newsroom at the start of the Macon Love tournament over Valentine’s weekend. “If we had this (restaurant) active already, that becomes a pretty good financial driver.”
As plans are being put to paper, Roberts will know more in the coming weeks about when the restaurant could open. Warren Associates, which built 32 courts in the old two-story Belk, will also construct the kitchen, bar and dining room in current storage space.
It would become only the second sit-down restaurant in the mall which currently has Ole Times Country Buffet and a limited food court.
The old O’Charley’s restaurant on an outparcel along Bloomfield Road remains vacant.
On the opposite side of the mall’s campus on neary 4.7 acres behind the Atrium Health Amphitheater, Gordon Food Service purchased the old Office Depot building near the Eisenhower Parkway entrance.
The Michigan-based company with $21 billion in annual sales is the largest family-operated food distribution service in the country, according to its website.
With over 125 years in business, the company prepares food and meals for restaurants, healthcare and education facilities.
“Wherever food is served, Gordon Food Service can have a hand in getting it on the table,” the website states.
The Macon Mall store is expected to be open to the public and operate like a grocery store, but no further details were immediately available about how many employees they will hire or when they expect to open.
The company’s existing stores advertise items such as rotisserie chicken, fresh squeezed fruit juices and other grocery items.
Renovations have been underway for months and the property is fenced off.
Although the building was valued at about $350,000 in the last assessment, it sold for $4.2 million last April, according to tax records.
“All that property is much more valuable now,” Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority Executive Director Alex Morrison said.
The UDA took over about half of the mall property more than three years ago through a donation from Hull Property Group that still owns the rest.
Since then, UDA’s $44 million in bonds built the amphitheater, pickleball facility, a library branch and Macon-Bibb County offices for the Board of Elections, Planning & Zoning, Building and Fire Safety, Middle Georgia Regional Commission and a community meeting space.
In Mayor Lester Miller’s plan, rent paid by those county offices and other entities in Macon-Bibb’s portion of the mall are paying back the bonds.
Populating empty stores with office workers provides the necessary foot traffic to lure new stores and restaurants, he has said, but commercial progress is slow.
UDA has a new tenant moving into an 11,000-square-foot space on the first floor across from P&Z and next to the Middle Georgia Regional Commission — WorkSource Middle Georgia of the Middle Georgia Consortium.
This office of workforce development receives federal funding to support Baldwin, Crawford, Houston, Jones, Macon-Bibb, Monroe, Peach, Pulaski, Putnam, Twiggs and Wilkinson counties.
Architect Gene Dunwody Jr. of Dunwody/Beeland Architects who designed the other county offices is also working on this project.
Some people were skeptical about Macon-Bibb’s plans for the mall, amphitheater and pickleball haven, but Roberts is impressed by how fast Rhythm & Rally caught on.
“The level of sustained enthusiasm has surprised me a little bit. That we were this successful this fast, had the membership growth in the first year,” Roberts said.
When opening in January of 2024, they set a goal of 500 memberships the first year and topped that in July. Rhythm & Rally now is nearing 800 members.
As more people come to the mall, local leaders hope to see additional businesses spring up.
“This facility as an economic driver for the community is already tremendous,” Roberts said. “I think of us as a community asset, community resource, and in that vein especially that we have this many people coming from outside the community to spend their money in our town.”
Visit Macon, which works in tandem with Roberts in scheduling events around tournaments and other activities, has the stats to back that up.
In January, the Southern Pickleball Southeastern Championship and World Pickleball Tour Amateur Invitational Championship tournaments drew nearly 2,000 attendants, who booked nearly 1,000 hotel room nights with an economic impact of over $1.6 million.
— Civic Journalism Senior Fellow Liz Fabian covers Macon-Bibb County government entities for The Macon Newsroom and can be reached at fabian_lj@mercer.edu or 478-301-2976.
