Macon | Bibb County: Building a Future

Quality of Life: Stephen Adams, executive director of the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority, and MBCIA Chair Robby Fountain at YKK AP America at the I-75 Industrial Park. Photo credit: Matt Odom

Civic leaders in Macon-Bibb County are using a long-term strategy for building a sustainably vibrant community – driven by local entrepreneurial grit, as well as forces from across the globe and the ancient past, all of it converging rhythmically on sacred ground.

“This is more than economic development,” says Tracie Revis, acting CEO for the Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative. The group – comprised of citizens from Middle Georgia and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation – has been working to expand the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, next door to Macon, into a national park.

The project is expected to drive transformative economic growth in the region, but there’s something even bigger happening here, notes Revis, a member of the Muscogee Nation who was sent to Macon, her tribe’s ancestral home, from Oklahoma, specifically to represent her people.

“This work is deeply inclusive at its core,” she says. “It’s about healing generational trauma, building bridges across cultures, creating spaces where people from all backgrounds can feel connected and valued, and moving forward together.”

That willingness to confront the past and keep the momentum going is a Macon superpower, according to Jessica Walden, president and CEO of the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce.

“In Macon, everything is connected – our history, our families, our culture,” says Walden, whose father, Alan Walden, and uncle, Phil Walden, co-founded Capricorn Studios in Macon (with their partner Frank Fentner), basically inventing Southern Rock. “That spirit of collaboration and building relationships runs deep here.”

Cultivating Relationships

In October, a delegation from Macon traveled across the world to reaffirm a 50-year relationship, visiting the YKK Corporation in Kurobe City, Japan. YKK, best known as the world’s largest zipper manufacturer, opened its first U.S. plant in Macon in 1974. The company also makes architectural systems and industrial machinery.

International Trip: Gov. Brian Kemp with first lady Marty Kemp, center, led a state delegation including Georgia Department of Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson, second from left, and Macon-Bibb Mayor Lester Miller, fourth from right, on a visit to YKK headquarters in Tokyo. Photo credit: Contributed

“When a company stays for 50 years, reinvests and continues to show up as a community partner, that’s not accidental – that’s trust,” says Stephen Adams, executive director of the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority. “You can’t put a dollar amount on that relationship.”

Investing Locally: Interior of YKK AP America’s plant in Macon. Photo credit: Contributed

For Macon-Bibb County Mayor Lester Miller, who led the local mission to Japan, the lesson is clear: Companies with roots behave differently. “They expand rather than relocate – they invest locally because they plan to stay,” says Miller, pointing to the 2024 expansion of YKK AP America’s windows and doors plant in Macon, a $125 million investment.

“The Japan trip was a great opportunity to be around companies interested in relocating to the United States or expanding here,” Miller says.

Fiscal year 2025 was filled with opportunity in Macon-Bibb, which experienced $1.87 billion in new private investment that created 3,400 new jobs and retained 1,500 others. The ability to create and cultivate business relationships has earned some national recognition from Site Selection magazine, which named Macon a “Top 10 Metro City.”

Creating Jobs: BrightFarms’ 480,000-square-foot hydroponic greenhouse produces 22,000 pounds of lettuce a day. Photo credit: Contributed

One of the development highlights last year was the grand opening in June of BrightFarms’ 8-acre, 480,000-square-foot hydroponic greenhouse. Located near Macon’s Airport East Industrial Park, BrightFarms, whose parent company is Cox Enterprises, produces 22,000 pounds of lettuce a day. The project created 125 jobs with plans for up to 300 and includes the Cox Farms Discovery Center to support workforce development in modern agriculture.

“Our water quality was the decisive factor,” says Adams, noting that Javors Lucas Lake next door in Jones County, with 5.8 billion gallons, can meet the demand. “If you’re a company that’s in hydroponic farming – where your product is grown in water and water only – quality is everything, and we have that in abundance.”

“In It for the Long Haul”

Eric Williams was 22 in 2016 when he bought some precision metal fabrication equipment, hired four employees and launched Unified Defense in Byron. In 2022, he purchased Prince Service & Manufacturing, a third-generation metal and components manufacturer in Macon. Now 31, Williams is the CEO of both companies, with a workforce of more than 300 employees involved in making military and aerospace ground support equipment, among other things.

“I’ve started a business and a family here,” says Williams, who moved to the area from Ohio. “So I am in it for the long haul.”

Airport-driven Growth: Eric Williams, CEO of both Unified Defense in Byron and Prince Service & Manufacturing in Macon, above, credits development at Middle Georgia Regional Airport as one of the reasons for his investment in the area. The airport is in the process of adding a guitar-shaped terminal, seen from an aerial view in the rendering below. Photo credit: Contributed

Williams, who was the 2024 Georgia Small Businessperson of the Year, worked with the industrial authority to buy 40 acres for a planned 425,000-square-foot facility expected to create 300 jobs in its first year – welders, assembly workers, painters and electricians, mainly.

He credits Macon’s investments in infrastructure – particularly the developments at Middle Georgia Regional Airport – as major reasons for his own investment. The airport plans to unveil a $12 million guitar-shaped terminal in 2027. And a $30 million expansion will extend the main runway to 7,100 feet to accommodate larger aircraft and make the airport more competitive.

“Better air service, along with improved roads and quality of life, makes Macon more attractive for companies and people moving their families here,” Williams says.

The airport investment is crucial, but then again, investments in recreation, tourism and cultural assets also are essential recruitment tools as companies increasingly follow talent. From airport-driven growth to a new national park, people in Macon-Bibb are taking a holistic approach.

“Companies follow people and people go where the quality of life is,” Adams says. “Employers chase the talent, and if something like the national park happens and more people move to Macon, it becomes easier for us to recruit companies. It’s all connected.”

Macon Connections

The potential new national park is already spurring other projects – notably, the $400 million East Bank development on the east side of the Ocmulgee River, anchored by Mercer University’s $80 million medical school and research complex, which broke ground in November.

Filling a Need: Rendering of Mercer University’s $80 million medical school and research complex, below, which broke ground in November; Penny Elkins, above, is Mercer’s first woman president in its 192-year history. Photo credit: Matt Odom

“Mercer exists to fill unmet needs in Georgia, and our medical school is a clear example of that mission,” says Penny Elkins, the university’s president. “We receive state support to train physicians for communities that need them most, and we expect our graduates to see medicine as a calling to serve.”

Elkins, who became Mercer’s first woman president in its 192-year history on January 1, credits an alignment of philanthropy and public investment – led by the Knight, Peyton Anderson and Woodruff foundations – with turning the university’s long-imagined medical school concept into a fully-funded reality.

“The medical school may be the anchor, but the riverfront development is unprecedented for Macon-Bibb County,” she says. “The scale of the project reflects what’s possible when Mercer and the community move together.”

The rest of East Bank includes hotels and a convention center as well as residential, office, retail and public space. The crown jewel will be a new arena, built on the Macon Centreplex property, adjacent to the current coliseum and the Atrium Health Amphitheater.

Houston-based PBK Architects is designing the arena. The project is scheduled to break ground in July and be open for live sports, entertainment and other events by summer 2028. Like the medical school, a modern arena is seen as a necessary part of Macon’s continuing revitalization.

Crown Jewel: Groundbreaking is scheduled this summer on a new arena at the Macon Centreplex property, which will be home to the Macon Mayhem, a minor league hockey team. Photo credit: Contributed

“If we don’t do something, we’ll be left behind,” says David Aiello, general manager of the Macon Centreplex, who looks across the state at Athens, Augusta and Savannah, where new arenas have opened or are under development.

The future Macon arena already has a tenant – the Macon Mayhem, a minor league hockey team – and will be designed with flexibility in mind, so it can host various kinds of sports and ice events and conventions. It will also increase Macon’s ability to showcase its most well-known cultural resource.

“Everybody knows Macon’s music history, and we’ve been able to leverage that to attract major performing artists with our amphitheater and other venues,” Aiello says. “Those events pump money into the local economy as people leave the venue and pour into restaurants and stores downtown. The new arena will propel us even further into the future.”

Artistic Roots

In recent years, Macon has been propelled onto big and small screens across the world. The city typically hosts four or five major productions a year, generating an estimated annual economic impact of $4 million to $5 million. If you saw the 2025 film Superman, you saw Macon’s historic Terminal Station stand in as the newsroom of the Daily Planet.

“When film location teams call looking for something specific, it’s because Macon has something that can’t be replicated on a soundstage,” says Aaron Buzza, senior vice president and COO for Visit Macon – in that capacity, he also runs the Macon Film Commission. “The best advertising for us as a film location is usually just picking up the phone.”

Big Screen Backdrop: The 2025 film Superman used Macon’s historic Terminal Station as the newsroom of the Daily Planet. Photo credit: DC Studios

And it always pays to pick up the phone. Superman, for instance, bought up more than 3,000 hotel room nights in Macon, money that directly supports Visit Macon.

But music remains the artistic cornerstone in Macon. When Buzza’s boss, Visit Macon CEO Gary Wheat, thinks of local music, he traces it back to the Muscogee.

“When tribal members talk about music, they talk about vibrations,” he says. “The vibrations of their ancestors in ‘Mother Earth.’ So, when I think about music traditions in Macon, I start there.”

Visit Macon amplifies the Macon music narrative through its own radio station. Last year the nonprofit bought The Creek 100.9 (WNEX-FM), an Americana music radio station that streams internationally.

Street Level Economy

The long view might be the strategy, but Macon’s everyday momentum is best seen at street level, where small businesses spark downtown’s revival. At the heart of this work is NewTown Macon, the nonprofit that bridges the gap where traditional financing often falls short.

Honoring His Predecessor: James Fritze, NewTown Macon’s president and CEO, at home goods store Rabbit Hole, says much of Macon’s progress is due to the late Josh Rogers, NewTown’s longtime president. Photo credit: Matt Odom

“I was about $10,000 short,” recalls Scott Mitchell, a local entrepreneur who owns two downtown businesses – the metaphysically-spiced gift shop Bohemian Den and Sweet Eleanor’s Divine Desserts. “Banks wouldn’t loan it. NewTown stepped in and that made the difference.”

What began as rehabs of single buildings became clusters of vibrant restaurants, shops, offices and residential space – neighbors working side-by-side rather than competing. Much of the progress happened under the leadership of Josh Rogers, NewTown’s longtime president who died unexpectedly from cardiac arrest in November 2024. He’s remembered as a visionary and tireless trust-builder.

“We didn’t want to do this work without Josh,” says James Fritze, NewTown’s president and CEO, who worked closely with Rogers for years. “But we’re going to double our efforts. That’s what he would’ve wanted.”

That spirit resonates on a December evening downtown, when Macon is illuminated by its Christmas Light Extravaganza – a canopy of a million lights moving in time with music, an annual event that increases foot traffic across town from November to January.

And the spirit stretches across city blocks, into new places, like the Rabbit Hole on Forsyth Street. That’s where social media entrepreneur Autumn VanGunten and nationally recognized painter Cedric Smith sell curated art, home goods, plants and clothing.

Holiday Spirit: From November to January, Macon is illuminated by its Christmas Lights Extravaganza. Photo credit: Contributed

“We aim to create an immersive, welcoming space,” says VanGunten, who adds that NewTown was instrumental in turning an idea into a viable business, providing financing and ongoing, hands-on support that she calls “deeply personal and continuous. They’ve held our hands through the entire process.”

A few doors down, Margaret “Bear” Harrington of Bear’s Books has a similar story. The retired teacher says NewTown helped her “turn my love of reading into a warm gathering spot where people are looking for experiences, not just transactions.”

Meanwhile, Macon native Kaitlynn Kresslin is using her knack for hospitality to enrich her hometown. In the last 10 years, alongside husband Nate, she’s built and operated Ocmulgee Brewpub, Fall Line Brewing Co. and The Overlook on First (a wedding and events venue).

“Hospitality is storytelling,” she says. “We love being part of the moments people associate with Macon.”

Renovated Rhythms

Georgia’s cradle of music still has some sour notes to work through, however. With a poverty rate of about 25%, housing and neighborhood revitalization remain large, complex challenges. According to Alex Morrison, executive director of the Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority, “we’re tackling neighborhood challenges at the neighborhood scale – addressing blighted properties early, working hand-in-hand with residents through our neighborhood development coordinators and using our locally funded Affordable Housing Fund.”

Tackling Challenges: Alex Morrison, executive director of the Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority, at the site of a development scheduled to open in August that will include retail and office space and garage parking. Photo credit: Matt Odom

The aim is to increase overall housing supply while stabilizing vulnerable communities, “making sure new development doesn’t drive up costs for the most vulnerable people or push them out,” adds Morrison, who is most excited about a project with 50-year roots.

Rosa Parks Square originally opened in 1978 as Macon Civic Plaza, “and it’s been through many different cycles, but now it’s been raised to a level that fits the dignity of Rosa Parks,” says Morrison, also Macon-Bibb’s director of planning and public spaces.

A $2.5 million renovation has created an attractive little park with picnic tables, a performance stage and a memorial wall. Morrison envisions the space as a hub of daytime and nighttime activity.

A short walk from the square down Cotton Avenue, past the Otis Redding Center for the Arts and over to Cherry Street, will take you to a different kind of hub, Fresh Produce Records, where the owners – William Dantzler and William Rutledge – are busily dismantling a pallet of precious vinyl that has just arrived. It’s a new 5LP Widespread Panic boxset, most of which has already been preordered through the store, all of which will sell out before Christmas. A lot of that business comes via mail – Fresh Produce has a national cult following.

Historic Restoration: Rosa Parks Square, which opened in 1978, is undergoing a $2.5 million renovation. Photo credit: Contributed

Since opening in 2013, it’s been considered more than a record store. It’s more like a cultural nucleus where the city’s recorded music heritage thrives, and new artists are welcome. Recently, Fresh Produce doubled its storefront, adding space to accommodate live performances and DJs.

For chamber leader Jessica Walden, who grew up surrounded by music that made her family internationally famous, businesses like Fresh Produce are essential to Macon’s heartbeat and ongoing health.

“One of the best temperature checks for urban vibrancy is whether you can support a vinyl record store,” she says. “Music is one of Macon’s greatest exports, so to see it growing here, on our city streets, is truly gratifying. It tells you something about our downtown, and it tells you something about Macon.”

Sacred Connection: Tracie Revis, acting CEO and director of advocacy for the Ocmulgee National Park & Preserve Initiative. Photo credit: Matt Odom

Local Flavor

Returning to Mother Ground

Tracie Revis grew up in Oklahoma, where her ancestors’ Trail of Tears ended. “I was raised traditional,” she says. So, when she first visited the Ocmulgee Mounds site near Macon, she felt anger while walking ancestral grounds, contemplating the forced removal of her people. And she was exposed to some surprising unfamiliarity among locals who weren’t aware that her people and their ancestors had even existed in the area for 17,000 years.

“I felt like they didn’t know anything about us,” says Revis, acting CEO of the Ocmulgee National Park & Preserve Initiative since January, when Seth Clark stepped down to run for lieutenant governor. She had been COO and director of outreach. Her mood changed while walking to a mound site in 2021. She recognized the scent of a plant still used in Muscogee Green Corn ceremonies. The unexpected smell triggered something, shifting her experience from grief and anger to healing.

“That changed everything. I could feel the presence of my ancestors then. And I realized that the anger was counterproductive,” says Revis, who was at the time chief of staff for David Hill, principal chief of the Muscogee Nation. “Chief Hill always says, ‘If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.’”

Today she sits at the head of the table, balancing advocacy, policy guidance and community engagement. And the Muscogee presence is visible across town where the Muscogee language appears on street signs, tribal art occupies public space, and the Muscogee Nation flag flies at City Hall. Tribal citizens serve on boards and commissions related to tourism and emergency management coordination.

“Tracie is integral to telling the story and restoring a sacred connection to the land,” says Clark. “There’s no way we can authentically steward a site of this importance without a consistent Muscogee presence.”

Designation as a national park could create more than $200 million in economic activity that would support 3,000 jobs and raise more than $30 million in regional tax revenue, according to forecasts. The project has strong bipartisan support in Congress but hit a snag in December when the National Park Service testified before the Senate against legislation to create the park, saying the agency wants to use its resources to maintain existing national parks rather than expand.

Ultimately, Congress has final authority. But whatever happens, Revis has found a new home in an old place, like her Aunt Addie George, who worked at the historic site in the 1970s. “For me, Macon has become a home and place of reconnection,” she says. “Our history, language and ceremonies are alive in the land here. I like being the boots on the ground, giving my people a voice and becoming part of the Macon-Bibb community.”