MACON, Ga. — Tuesday night, Macon-Bibb commissioners decided to ring in the new year by imploding the old downtown Ramada.
They approved a contract with Target Contractors LLC to demolish the hotel, which would cost up to $2.4 million to complete.
A few hours before commissioners approved the demolition plans, Mayor Lester Miller sat down for this week's edition of Central Georgia Focus to talk about the demolition.
"We acquired this property to blow it up, and I think a lot of people are going to have a problem with it," Miller said.
He said the building isn't structurally sound -- and couldn't support major renovations.
"We're gonna spend a little money to tear that thing down. But what you'll see that's replacing that will be 100 times of what it's doing right now," Miller said.
Russ Henry voiced his concerns ahead of the demolition on behalf of Christ Church Episcopal on Walnut Street.
He says another Episcopal Church in the Atlanta area was damaged after a Norfolk Southern building was demoed nearby.
"Whether it was the demolition of the site, or whether it was how they pound the pylons into the ground, it caused all these cracks in the buildings, they just kept getting wider and wider," Henry said.
Henry is not opposed to the plan, but he wants commissioners to proceed with caution, especially to protect the church's $1 million stained-glass window ahead of their bicentennial celebration next year.
Miller said the plan is to issue a contract to nearby facilities in the next few weeks that will provide guidance ahead of the implosion.
He says he plans to hold an engagement session with everyone in the immediate vicinity of the hotel before the final countdown.
"It's an eyesore to the whole community, we would love to have something else there," Henry said. "We just want to make sure that our church doesn't get blown up on our bicentennial."
Mayor miller said the demolition of the Ramada could make way for another project called "Renaissance on the River", which was also approved to move forward tonight.
That project would include a mixed-use development on the west bank of the river along Riverside Drive.
The total cost for the lot and demo could amount to more than $6 million by the time the Ramada falls.