For more than 40 years, Macon leaders have dreamed about a major development along the Ocmulgee River.
Thursday, the Urban Development Authority signed a deal to sell to Mercer University the old Transit Authority site and adjacent land next to the Burger King in the 800 block of Riverside Drive. The sales price of $1.9 million was half of the property’s appraised value. The board also took steps to help alleviate the food desert created in the wake of the closing of the Pio Nono Avenue Kroger in 2018.
For several years, Mercer Chancellor Kirby Godsey’s “Renaissance on the River” corporation held an option with the UDA on seven acres on Riverside Drive that stretch from near New Street to Second Street. Mercer University purchased a total of 9.78 acres for this new development.
Late last year, Godsey transferred that option to the Corporation of Mercer University which has been scouting downtown locations for a new medical school, as The Macon Newsroom reported in December.
In September 2023, the Knight Foundation granted Mercer $5 million toward relocating the medical school in downtown. A year later in September 2024, the Peyton Anderson Foundation announced it was making its “largest grant award to date” with $10 million in funding for the new downtown medical school facility.
The Mercer University School of Medicine was established on campus more than 40 years ago, but has outgrown its space.
“The Macon campus has grown from 96 M.D. students originally to 240 M.D. students today,” Jean Sumner, dean of the medical school, said in a news release. “More and better instructional and research space is required to accommodate a growing number of students, scientists, technicians, and graduate students, as well as more advanced equipment and technology.”
Macon-Bibb County leaders see the move as a catalyst for development of hotels, residential lofts, restaurants and more retail space in downtown.
“It is our goal to continue reactivating unused spaces of our urban core, providing people with additional living space, opportunities for continued education, and more,” UDA Executive Director Alex Morrison said.
Mayor Lester Miller said this project complements his plans for a new conference center and hotel on the old Hilton/Ramada site at the corner of First Street and the East Bank development on the other side of the river. The high-rise hotel was demolished New Year’s Day.
“Our city along the Ocmulgee River and First Street is about to undergo a major transformation,” Miller said.
Mercer President Bill Underwood said replacing the medical school on campus would have been difficult due to space constraints, but this plan gives the university the chance to help transform downtown and build on the successes of the last decade.
“Developing a riverfront home for the Mercer University School of Medicine seizes the opportunity to construct a stunning new facility designed to meet the needs of a growing student population with 21st Century technology at an important gateway in Macon,” Underwood said in the release.
Details of the sale and site plan were not immediately released.
Mercer opened a riverfront medical school campus in Columbus four years ago and established another four-year campus in Savannah in 2008.
The university’s medical school program was established in 1982 to help provide doctors for medically underserved areas of Georgia.
Mercer reports more than 60% of its graduates practice in Georgia and more than 80% of those are serving in rural areas or where medical care is scarce.
Local leaders began assembling the Riverside Drive parcels in the early 1990s in a partnership with the City of Macon, Bibb County, Peyton Anderson Foundation, NewTown Macon and the UDA, the release stated.
About a dozen years ago, Chancellor Godsey began preparing the “Renaissance on the River” plan for 200 condominiums, a boutique hotel, retail and 240,000 square feet of medical or office space.
The $90 million project was to break ground in 2014 and be finished by the end of 2016.
Godsey pulled out of the deal with the city after learning the soil was contaminated with residue from lead, coal and oil from years of housing an Atlanta Gas Light/Georgia Power plant.
Up until 2011, the land was on the state’s hazardous site inventory list and had some environmental restrictions on residences on the property.
The Central City Apartments site on Walnut Street near Carolyn Crayton Park had similar issues that were mitigated before construction began. In that project, cement-like barriers were laid underground and construction could not dig below two feet.
About 14 years ago, Macon-Bibb County took over the property for similar remediation purposes before turning it over to the UDA for economic development purposes, the release stated.
Thursday morning, authority members spent about 10 minutes in executive session before approving the sale.
“That’s the quickest meeting ever,” UDA Chair Jan Beeland said.
“And maybe one of the most satisfying ever. It’s a great day,” UDA board member Ryan Griffin said.
Also coming out of executive session, UDA approved buying the old Piggly Wiggly grocery store at 3107 Napier Ave. with the intent of luring a new supermarket to the neighborhood near the Hillcrest Boulevard Nu-Way.
“The goal is to do something that alleviates the food desert in the area. We’re buying it with the hope to incentivize or otherwise generate the development. Whether it’s a grocery or something else, that’s our goal,” Morrison said.
In 2021, Macon-Bibb County appropriated $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to mitigate the negative effects of COVID-19 and address food deserts.
Last fall, the county transferred that money to the UDA for projects such as purchasing this vacant grocery store. Details of that purchase were not immediately available.
This story was updated to reflect the sales price of the property, acreage of the site Mercer purchased and additional grant funding to Mercer for the downtown location.
— 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.
