MACON, Ga. — In March, a new retail center was proposed for north Macon off of Bass Road near the old Starcadia location.
Wednesday afternoon, construction crews were at the site of the new North Macon Plaza, working on the facility, which will be home to several 'big name' stores like Old Navy, Famous Footwear and more.
Jim Welch is the co-owner of Welch's Meats, right near the intersection of Bass Road and Starcadia Circle.
"We've got a lot of people who travel all over to get here," Welch said.
They're preparing for the holiday catering rush.
"Just the day before Christmas, we will cut over 100 beef tenderloins," Welch said.
Their big operation is in a pretty small store, but Welch says their location is prime.
"We've got the new mall going up behind us, which we're excited about. You've got Bass Pro Shops, ACE, the Farm Bureau—we're centrally located," Welch said.
That's all on Bass Road—just in front of where construction crews are building the new 'North Macon Plaza.'
And the progress shows.
"We're in the process of leasing about 30,000 square-feet of local shop space," said Developer John Cohn.
Cohn says there will be room for a lot of local businesses here too, and they're in the middle of leasing that space out.
"It's in the part of town where a lot of retail trade has shifted over the last 6 or 8, 10, 12 years... so we're continuing that shift, and also bringing new retailers to Macon, who would rather locate today in the Northeast Macon quadrant," Cohn said.
On Wednesday afternoon, the outline of the 166,000 square-foot retail space was visible from above the construction site.
Though it's many months from completion, Welch says he'll be glad when it's done.
"Traffic is going to be a problem, the bottle necking of the traffic, but anytime we can get more people, and get more exposure, it will increase our business immensely," Cohn said.
Cohn says he expects the project to be complete by fall 2019.