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ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - The city is on year three of a 10-year revitalization plan.

If you live in Albany, you have likely seen the many construction projects, building renovations and new investment in the Downtown area.

The city says it has nearly 200 million dollars in projects in the pipeline. But Downtown revival is a challenge that cities across America face to make their downtown area not only relevant but thriving.

Walk through Downtown Macon and you will feel it immediately — restaurants packed with locals, renovated historic buildings, and a energy that has taken nearly 30 years to build.

At the center of that transformation is NewTown Macon. The privately funded redevelopment agency that has tracked one billion dollars in public-private investment.

James Fritz, President & CEO, NewTown Macon describes Downtown as “very vibrant with a local feel.”

NewTown Macon’s success didn’t happen by accident. It started with The Peyton Anderson Foundation, which seeded the organization in 1996 with private philanthropic capital, giving NewTown Macon the independence to work outside the constraints of local government.

“One of the things they realized was you couldn’t really rely on county governments to do the revitalization. Administrations changed, budgets changed, priorities changed within local governments.” Fritz said. “And so, they felt like they needed to set up a privately funded redevelopment agency to spearhead this work in downtown so we have been working hard at it for quite sometime.”

The model is built on data. NewTown Macon uses forward-looking market studies to determine what to build, where to build it, and who will come. The result is nearly 90 percent of occupancy in downtown lofts and roughly 85 percent in retail.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Promises, progress and plans: The state of downtown Albany <<

Based on Albany’s Downtown master plan roughly 300 new housing units and around 100,000 square feet of new restaurants, shops, and service businesses are coming which is about half of all new commercial space.

In other words, the plan leans toward a strong mix of places to live on upper floors, with ground‑floor space devoted to restaurants and everyday destinations.

Fritz said, “It’s not magic. It’s a lot of hard research and data. It helps because when we have those studies, the banks rely on them, the developers rely on them, the whole ecosystem relies on them. And they have been right, which were always suprised that they can look this far ahead and get it right.”

WALB asked Albany’s Downtown Manager and Executive Director, ADICA & DDA LeQurica Gaskins, if Albany could follow that plan. Gaskins says she’s familiar with NewTown Macon and while she admires the model, there is not a similar private investment in Albany.

“What we do have are tax allocation districts. We got that...that is one of the tools in our toolbox. We have the central business district now listed in a historical national district. That is a tool in the toolbox,” Gaskins said.

City Manager Terrell Jacobs says those tools, including roughly 13 million dollars in low-interest municipal trust fund loans are what set Albany’s model apart.

“Our model is a little bit different than what Macon was because they had an endowment,” Jacobs said. “We had trust fund money that we could loan out at low interest rates to help them get their development off the ground. So that’s the kind of difference that we have.”

Macon has spent three decades building, now Albany leaders are hopeful they have a plan to build but the real question is if they will get there.

On the next part of the State of Downtown Albany we dig into what people actually want for the area.

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