The Macon skyline has been a little darker since one of the tallest and oldest buildings in downtown turned its lights off over four years ago. What was once The Ramada Hotel is now a vacant building in the heart of downtown. 13WMAZ’s Mary Grace Shaw took a look at what exactly is going on inside the building that was once considered a treasure to the Macon community.
James Freeman works across the street from the old Ramada Hotel.
“People tell stories of Elvis staying at the hotel,” says Freeman. He says the history has a long history in Macon.
“If they call it the Hilton, they’ve been here a long time. If they call it the Ramada, they might be newer. If it's just the abandoned hotel, even newer,” says Freeman. He says he sees activity out in front of the hotel from time to time. Freeman says just the other day when he was walking into work, he noticed a couple out in front of what used to be the Ramada Hotel cleaning up shrubs.
“2012 was the last time anyone was running the hotel,” says the director of Macon-Bibb county Urban Development Authority, Alex Morrison. He says Rupinder Sangha bought the building in 2012. Morrison says Sangha wants to turn the building into a Park Inn by Radisson, but he has had financial issues.
“Issues with the boiler in the building, something that was definitely going to have to be replaced,” says Morrison about some of the issues. He says the county and its partners offered tax abatements to the owner. That is a tax cut that would gradually phase out over ten years in return for the jobs that the project would bring. However, Morrison says Sangha never moved forward with it.
“The last report we received, he’s still looking at the financial situation making sure he can get his financing in place to make a significant enough investment to re-open the hotel,” says Morrison. He says this 16 story hotel with 300 rooms is something that you just do not see being built in today's world.
“Could be a treasure for our community and signify our positive momentum for downtown,” says Morrison. Momentum that Morrison says the county has been working on by adding lofts and restaurants downtown.
“It definitely sends the wrong message about what’s happening on the ground downtown,” says Morrison.
One thing both Freeman and Morrison agree on is that there is nothing that catches someone’s eye like the three main high rises you see as you pull into downtown.
“The type of project that signifies to a larger audience that things are moving forward downtown,” says Morrison.
“A building something needs to be done with one way or another,” says Freeman.
We spoke to Mike Nipper, the Ramada's security guard, who said owner Rupinder Sangha would be in town last Thursday. We left a message for Sangha, but he did not call us back. We also spoke to Sangha's local lawyer, Blake Lisenby, and he said he could not comment on plans for the hotel.