MACON, Ga. — Downtown Macon's Cherry Street will see lots of changes and construction over the next year.
A former department store building in downtown Macon is being torn down to create 95 new lofts, six office spaces and three local retail stores.
This is all part of a $30 million project to help revitalize Macon.
Neel's Department Store and Blair's Furniture used to occupy the space. Neel's closed in 1993, leaving it untouched for the past 30 years and Blair's closed in 2020.
Now, the new building will be called Neels Lofts.
The Historic Macon Foundation wanted to save the buildings, but economically, nothing seemed to work out.
Robbo Hatcher is a local developer who bought the building several years ago.
"If you put your finger in the middle of downtown, you put it on this block and for this block to be empty for so long has just been awful," Hatcher said. "The building wasn't contributing to downtown in its current form and since this block has been dead for 30 years since Neel's closed, we all agreed it would be better to put something here that would revitalize the block that was new rather than leave a building that was really kind of falling apart and demolition by neglect."
Hatcher wanted to help save the buildings too, but he said it'd be better to build something new to revitalize downtown than leave it to fall apart.
"It'll be a large vibrant project in the middle of downtown and it'll fill in some places that have kind of been dead for some time and we think by filling in those places and creating more energy we create more stability for the historic structures that are left here," he said.
Leon Jackson was walking around downtown and said he was shocked to see the deconstructed hole in the building.
"I am glad that they are taking more initiative to refurbish some of our old buildings," Jackson said. "We have plenty in town, and hopefully that's going to do something very great for the downtown community, visitors, and the employees down here."
However, growing up in Macon, Jackson says it's fairly normal to tear down and rebuild older buildings downtown.
"We have a lot of people in our local community that does a lot of backing and funding so these kind of projects are pretty great for us as a whole.," Jackson said. "They usually serve well for the whole community."
When it comes to Macon, Hatcher said its future looks bright and he sees a lot of opportunities for growth in the city.
"That, I think, says a lot about how many people want to move into downtown and be a part of this really great place," Hatcher said.
Construction will start in 2024 and Hatcher hopes to have it fully running by 2025.