MACON, Ga. — Newtown Macon President Josh Rogers and Alex Morrison from the Bibb County Urban Development Authority headed a joint effort to develop downtown Macon.
"We are, even in the middle of the pandemic, opening additional businesses. We've set record storefront occupancy, record loft occupancy, there are new lofts and new businesses coming online everyday, it gets more and more exciting," Rogers said.
They've seen major progress in the first phase of the Macon Action Plan that began in 2015.
"We've got 52 restaurants, 26 bars and music venues. It's just been an incredible explosion of economic activity since 2015," Rogers said.
"A big portion of that was through the downtown challenge where we asked individual stakeholders to implement the plan as part of the process. So, not just relying on government, or not just relying on non-profits, but individual citizens taking that stake," Morrison said.
Downtown Macon says it has seen $5 million in foundation grants and over $400 million of additional private and public investment since the completion of phase 1.
"We basically found out that we were on the right track, but there are four new lenses that we're going to apply to our current strategies, which is inclusivity. Especially a focus on increasing the number of black owned businesses downtown. Creative industries, sustainability and family friendly programming. So those are the new lenses that people are going to see in the 25 strategies that are in the new version of the Macon Action Plan," Rogers said.
They were able to complete 92% of the plan in phase one which included the Christmas Lights Extravaganza, improving parking and adding more lofts. They hope to attract more people with phase two.
"We need to make sure we're providing a level playing field for everybody and this is what that plan does. It's not a plan to hit home runs. It's not a plan to build skyscrapers or locate a major league baseball team. It's a plan to improve the lives of regular people," Morrison said.
The Peyton-Anderson and John S. and James L. Knight Foundation donated another million and half dollars for the second Downtown Challenge.
The deadline to apply is March 15.
You can find the link to apply on the Macon Action Plan website.