MACON, Ga. — Macon-Bibb Mayor Lester Miller's plans for revitalizing the Macon Mall took a step forward Thursday.
The county announced which companies will design and build an amphitheater next to the mall. Mayor Miller expects the groundbreaking ceremony to happen sometime in the next couple of weeks.
The Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority approved four companies including Piedmont Construction Group as the designers and builders. The space will have a 10,000-person capacity.
"It's been a wonderful two weeks for tourism -- everything from the opening of Hotel Forty Five to the expansion of Ocmulgee National Historical Park to today, so I think this is a step in the right direction for tourism and what the destination needs here in Macon-Bibb County," said Visit Macon Executive Director Gary Wheat.
13WMAZ has heard a lot of comments about another proposal that could be added to the revitalized mall: a network of aerial gondolas over the streets of Macon.
Georgia Mobility Solutions and J-Pods LLC hope to build a networks of pods, or gondolas, connecting downtown to the Macon Mall.
"It's certainly gonna happen before you get any rail from here to Atlanta... it's certainly gonna happen, and I want Macon-Bibb to be at the very beginning of that," said Macon-Bibb Mayor Lester Miller.
The gondolas would be about 15 to 18 feet off the ground and would run alongside existing roads. They would be solar-powered.
Mayor Miller says the gondolas would keep people off the street and prevent accidents. He also says they would bring jobs.
"If we're going to have a place like this, we're gonna have to build it," Miller said. The company's going to come here to Macon, they're going to build, they're going to educate, they're going to train people, so it's going to create another economic opportunity for us to employ a lot of people at a good wage."
The mayor signed a memorandum of understanding with the companies in mid-January, which is a non-binding agreement confirming the county's interest. He rated his confidence the project will go through as a "6 or 7 out of 10."