The Urban Development Authority held a news conference in Third Street Park to announce a change of hands for the Dempsey Apartments in downtown Macon on Friday.
Chris Sheridan, Chairman at the UDA said, "the main positive points to make are local ownership, local management, and no residents will be displaced."
The Barkan Companies, a Boston Firm, currently owns the Dempsey, its 194 apartments and first-floor businesses.
Barkan bought the Dempsey in 1983, with help from the federal Department, Urban Development and Bibb County. They converted the old hotel into housing for low-income elderly people.
Once the sale is complete, the Macon Housing Authority will sign a management contract with the UDA to manage the Dempsey.
The UDA's news release says "plans for the building and its residents will not change" and that current residents will not be displaced.
A federal contract for low-income housing at the site remains in place through 2025, and another agreement states that the hotel will be used for low-income housing through 2035.
The building was built in 1912 as a luxury hotel and once featured a Japanese tea room with costumed Japanese waitresses.
It housed troops and the Red Cross during World War II, ande became the Dempsey Motor Hotel in the 1950s.
The hotel began to decline in the 1960s, the UDA says, and was turned into Section 8 subsidized housing in the 1980s.
Jason Moore has lived at The Dempsey for three years.
He said he is happy about the change and he is happy he won't have to move.
"As far as staff and other things like that nothing is going to change," said Moore.
He hopes that local management might make it easier to get things in his apartment fixed.
"Well Im hoping that they can help our air conditioning system or our heating system," said Moore.
The property was sold for 4.5 million dollars