On Wednesday, June 18, 2025, Macon-Bibb County issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for a hotel and convention center to be built at 108 First Street, site of the former abandoned hotel in Downtown Macon. The closing date for submissions is July 17, 2025. To view the RFQ, click here.

“We want to have a first-class convention and event experience here in the center of Georgia, one that is within walking distance of our Downtown and the many local and amazing businesses,” says Mayor Lester Miller. “Too often, we hear of conferences, events, and conventions pass us by because our facilities are now falling behind others in the state, but people wish they could choose us due to our location. This is that chance to create something great and bring even more people to our community. 

The county is looking for statements of qualifications from developers to design, finance, and construct a new hotel, convention center, and parking structure on a 3.5-acre site directly across the street from a development tract soon to be developed by Mercer University. The developer of the project would ideally serve as the operator of the hotel and convention center in partnership with Visit Macon. 

Preliminary conceptual renderings for this development are included with this release; the final designs may differ from these renderings. 

“This is an exciting time for this area of Downtown, from all the work coming along First Street, down Riverside Drive, and near the pedestrian entrance of the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park,” says Alex Morrison, Macon-Bibb County Director of Planning & Public Spaces. “We are setting up for a major transformation and rejuvenation of a core gateway into our Downtown, one that will welcome people on foot, bicycle, car, or mass transit, and that’s resulting from people-focused planning of the last decade plus.” 

This past February, the Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority (UDA) approved selling its Riverside Drive property (815 Riverside Drive) across the street from 108 First Street to Mercer University as the first step in a major redevelopment of the area. Mercer University will relocate its Macon Medical School facility to the site, and that will serve as the catalyst for the development of hotels, lofts, restaurants, and retail space.  

 Mercer President William D. Underwood said then that trying to replace the existing medical school facility on the main campus would be difficult, due to space limitations. Perhaps more significantly, he said, relocating the medical school to the downtown site will create an opportunity to have a transformative impact on the broader Macon community.  

“Developing a riverfront home for the Mercer University School of Medicine seizes a unique opportunity to construct a stunning new facility designed to meet the needs of a growing student population with 21st century technology at an important gateway into Macon,” Underwood said. “It will also attract related residential, retail, and hotel development to what will become a vibrant and attractive new entry point into downtown Macon. The overall impact on downtown Macon will be transformational, in building on the highly successful revitalization efforts of the past decade.”