The troubled old Ramada hotel in downtown Macon, Georgia met its end on New Year's Day through implosion due to high restoration costs and safety concerns. The building, with a tainted history and lack of amenities, will be replaced with modern developments to revitalize the area.
Photo courtesy of Macon-Bibb County
Macon-Bibb County, partner agencies and Target Contractors worked together to implode the 16-story hotel.
The old Ramada hotel in downtown Macon, Ga., finally met its end in a cloud of dust and debris on New Year's Day.
The hotel had been a fixture of the Macon skyline for almost 56 years, but perpetually struggled to stay booked with guests. During its history, the building also had been at the center of a murder and an international drug scandal, leaving it with a tarnished reputation among locals and visitors alike.
Macon-Bibb County acquired it in late 2023 for $4.5 million to become the last of the hotel's many owners. Mayor Lester Miller told the Macon Telegraph that the building was immediately slated for demolition because of the whopping $100 million price tag to restore it.
The hotel — its facade a checkerboard of shattered windows and cracked concrete walls — has hindered development along First and Walnut streets due to safety concerns and its unsightliness, Miller said. As a result, businesses were hesitant to move in, and, because it was an eyesore, they worried it could present safety issues.
"No one has built to the [Ocmulgee River] because of this property standing here," he added. "It is blighted, it is dangerous, it creates issues for the community."
In the end, the county decided to hire a demolition contractor to implode the structure, which involves setting off explosives to kick out a building's support pillars, causing it to fall inward.
J.J. Martin, a senior project manager with Ladson, S.C.-based Target Contractors, a firm that specializing in demolition, explained to the Macon newspaper that implosion is a safer alternative than other demolition processes which can take longer, release more dust into the air and put nearby buildings at risk.
"It comes straight down," he said. "Gravity pretty much takes care of it."
While the county has not yet announced any formal plans for the site's future, Alex Morrison, Macon-Bibb County's director of planning and public spaces, said the property will likely become a more modern hotel or convention space that will tie into other revitalization efforts along the Ocmulgee River and help connect downtown to other parts of the city.
The county especially hopes to use the property to bolster a project called "Renaissance on the River," he told the Telegraph, which is expected to bring a mixed-use development to the west bank of the river along Riverside Drive near New Street.
"This has been a landmark property that's brought people from all over the world to Macon, and we imagine it can be that again," Morrison said. "This will help bring the gravity of downtown Macon back towards Walnut Street and the river."
Morrison said the city bought the hotel knowing it would be demolished. Besides the massive cost to repair it, the building also lacked the necessary structures and amenities to be used as anything other than a hotel.
Troubled History
The old Ramada Hotel was first constructed as the Macon Hilton Hotel in 1969. With 16 floors and more than 300 rooms, it was a hulking new building that dominated the city's skyline.
At the time, it seemed like Macon was on the upswing. Construction had just wrapped on nearby Interstate 75, and local leaders hoped it would bring a new wave of visitors to the city. The hotel was a physical manifestation of that optimism, according to the Telegraph, with it being the first new hotel built downtown since 1913.
However, the ill-fated inn faced trouble from the beginning. During its construction, a drainage pipe ruptured, and the construction superintendent suffered a heart attack, delaying the project.
By 1980, the hotel's owner had gone bankrupt, and Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. bought it for $3.1 million. The company invested $5 million in an attempt to turn the hotel into a Holiday Inn, but within eight years it was sold again to South Carolina-based Zurich Corp.
Just a few months later, three men from Panama were arrested at the hotel on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering after undercover federal agents lured them into the city on the promise of a major drug deal.
In 1991, the Hilton Corp. cut ties with Zurich Corp., citing the fact that Zurich was not making timely renovations to the Macon structure. Shortly afterward, the building was renamed the Macon Downtown Hotel.
However, that year brought even more trouble when a guest was murdered by a hotel employee inside the building, according to prior media reports. Just six months later, in November, the hotel was renamed the Ramada Hotel and Conference Center in hopes of a fresh start.
Even then, the hotel cycled through several more owners, name changes and rebrands, all failing to generate success.
Old Hotel Finally Put Out of Its Misery
After its most recent owner went bankrupt, the hotel went up for auction in November 2023, and Morrison said the city purchased the abandoned hotel knowing it would be demolished.
Macon-Bibb County bought it via the municipality's general fund but will reimburse the money through SPLOST funds raised through a local sales tax on select items. The transaction was finalized in 2024.
County officials jumped at the chance to acquire it, fearing it would have otherwise been caught in another ill-considered business deal and only decay more.
In the meantime, Macon residents had a chance to say goodbye to the seemingly cursed structure.
Early on Jan. 1, hundreds gathered at the designated viewing site on Coleman Hill Park to take their final look at the worn-out Ramada. Right at 9 a.m., Miller pressed a button, and the building came tumbling down like a house of cards blown over.
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