Casino company gets $20M option to buy J.C. Penney at Macon Mall

Macon-Bibb County’s Urban Development Authority laid the foundation for a potential casino on the site of the old J.C. Penney store at Macon Mall. 

Gaming and Leisure Properties, or GLPI, secured a $20 million purchase option over 10 years at Thursday’s UDA meeting, which allows time for the Georgia General Assembly to approve casino gambling in the state. 

Mayor Lester Miller said with proposals at the state Capitol to eliminate Georgia’s income tax and reduce property taxes, lawmakers are looking to add additional revenue, which could come from casinos. 

“There’s so many states across the United States that are legalizing casinos because basically, we already have them in our communities anyway, through sports betting and through machines in the stores. So there’s a lot of different perspective on whether or not Georgia can get casinos in the near future,” Miller said. “And of course, we’ve got a governor’s race coming up this year, and lieutenant governor’s, the entire state delegation will be coming up, and I’m hearing a lot of comments from a lot of those folks that casinos is maybe something they’re interested in.” 

GLPI is a subset of PENN Entertainment, which operates 41 casinos and betting facilities across the country. 

During the initial five-year option and once the ground lease is released, GLPI plans to spend up to $2.5 million to demolish the J.C. Penney building and surrounding improvements, clear, pave and landscape immediately around the site. If casinos have yet to be approved and the company needs a five-year extension, it will pay $500,000 in cash within five business days, the letter of intent stated. 

UDA also approved a feasibility study for the new Macon arena, convention center and hotel projects. 

Studying arena, convention center

The authority approved a $40,000 contract with Woodworth Core Group, a hospitality and real estate advisory company. 

UDA Executive Director Alex Morrison said the study is not to determine whether those projects are viable, they already know they are because they are turning away conventions and attractions. 

The study considers all of the costs and potential revenue those projects could generate before Macon-Bibb seeks financing.

“How much it would cost to build, how much revenue we could expect to make off of those, so we will have a third party report that we can use to help finance those projects, work with banks, lenders and developers on bringing equity to bear for those projects and help up as we are analyzing our capital stats for these projects, making sure that we are covering all of our bases and limiting exposure of taxpayer dollars in these projects,” Morrison said. 

Revenue generating potential extends beyond the business each venue does. Woodworth can factor in how much money is projected to come in from visitors to those attractions. 

“The biggest piece of this puzzle is people who are coming into this community, who are spending money in local businesses. That was why it’s so important for us to have a convention center on the downtown side of the river, having the arena be able to facilitate more local events, larger events, and maintain the slate that we have, is bringing new people in to our community, growing the pie of our of our tourism landscape, but also putting more money into local businesses.”

Morrison said Woodworth is highly respected and has done feasibility studies for major projects he’s liked in Atlanta and Savannah.

Rhythm & Rally restaurant, parking update

During Thursday’s meeting, UDA also learned the Rhythm & Rally pickleball facility at the mall has gotten agreements signed to proceed with building a courtside restaurant in the old Belk store that contains the “world’s largest indoor pickleball facility.” 

“They’re working with contractors now to get pricing so it shouldn’t take too terribly long. I would say by summer,” Morrison said. 

The authority also made the final decision on decorative metal tiles to beautify the exposed concrete sections of the new parking deck going up behind City Hall as part of the D.T. Walton Lofts project. 

Aluminum tiles of slate and charcoal gray will adorn the building in a similar color palette to the Peace Building in Greenville, South Carolina.  

UDA also is getting quotes to install spikes at the Mulberry Street parking garage exit to prevent people from entering there instead of next to the Douglass Theatre and working on enhancing downtown sidewalks on Cherry and Third streets. 

Civic Journalism Senior Fellow Liz Fabian covers Macon-Bibb County government entities for The Macon Newsroom and can be reached at fabian_lj@mercer.eduof 478-301-2976.