Macon Magazine

54 maconmagazine.com | August/September 2024 ABOVE The Dannenberg building opens as a bustling department store in the 19th century, but falls into disrepair a hundred years later during Macon's downtown decay. looked around downtown's decaying landscape and didn't like what met her eyes. So, she convened leaders, most notably Kirby Godsey, then-president of Mercer University, and a spectrum of fi nance, higher education, and business leaders. Each had skin in the game by contributing $10,000 in board dues annually to kickstart and sustain the revitalization eff orts. The organization came to be called "NewTown." The name is a nod to Macon's history. When European settlers forcibly displaced the indigenous Creek residents to establish Fort Hawkins, they fi rst called their civilian settlement "Newtown" before the city was incorporated and named for Congressman Nathaniel Macon. The idea was sparked by Akron, Ohio's University Park Alliance whose goal was revitalizing Akron's downtown by enlisting key stakeholders. Akron, too, is a Knight Foundation community. According to former Macon Mayor Robert Reichert, Akron businessmen associated with the alliance were brought to tour Macon. They said that if Akron had as much residential infrastructure as Macon's urban core, they would be years ahead in their eff orts. S U C C E S S , T H E N F A I L U R E Straight away, physical progress was made. NewTown proposed the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail. Until the trail eff ort, led by Chris Sheridan and NewTown's fi rst director, Mike Ford, Macon had a mostly inaccessible river. Currently, the trail is 13 miles long and ready to expand when construction of the new Interstate 16/I-75 interchange is complete. Reviving businesses downtown was a diff erent story. Marketing and investment and events didn't really work, and even those businesses that opened with the help of NewTown loans were short-lived. The reason? While the major government offi ces, and city and county courts were downtown, the streets would clear at 5 p.m., as those who worked downtown headed home to the suburbs. Downtown was thought to be crime-ridden. In actuality, the area had little crime because few people lived there. I F Y O U B U I L D I T, T H E Y W I L L C O M E In 2008, with the election of Robert Reichert to the mayor's offi ce, downtown gained a new evangelist. "I was recruited," said Reichert of being drafted to promote downtown. Jordan and Godsey didn't have to twist his arm much. Mayor Reichert would push for revitalization of the city's core incessantly. The downtown connector was constructed during Reichert's watch, an idea he picked up at the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Mercer had a problem. Too many students, not enough housing. The only direction to grow was south. A collaboration with the city and Mercer culminated in a "Signature" pedestrian bridge that crossed Mercer University Blvd. to housing south of the campus. At inception, Reichert said, neither he nor Mercer's President William Underwood knew what a "Signature" bridge meant, but they agreed to fi nd out together. Now Macon has a gateway to downtown from I-75. In 2011, Bibb County issued $10 million in bond funds to NewTown to establish a revolving loan fund for building rehabilitations that would deliver market- rate lofts to downtown. NewTown issued a loan to rehab the former Dannenberg Department Store into 1880 1990s

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