A medical school in the heart of Georgia is contributing to the revitalization of a historic downtown. Mercer University is harnessing $40 million in combined state and foundation funding to relocate its medical school to downtown Macon, Ga., marking what university officials call the largest investment in the institution’s history.
The project has garnered significant financial backing, including $25 million in proposed state funding and $15 million from private foundations. The Peyton Anderson Foundation contributed $10 million, while the Knight Foundation provided $5 million for the initiative. The total project is estimated to cost $75 million.
Macon is the center of Georgia’s fifth-largest metropolitan area. The relocation offers economic benefits, ranging from construction and staffing of new facilities to attracting top healthcare talent. As cities across the country look to cultivate more development near their downtowns, Macon’s university-anchored medical facilities could become a catalyst for keeping pace with rapid development in the state and the region.
The current medical school facility is a 100,000-square-foot building constructed in 1982 on College Street, but the building no longer fits the needs of the medical school that will soon serve more than 720 medical students. The medical program has outgrown the space after more than 40 years, with professors now requiring more lab space and improved teaching facilities. Rather than renovating the existing campus on Macon’s west side, university leaders opted to integrate the new facility into the downtown core, with space set aside for additional development around the medical complex.
“This will supercharge the already great things that we see going on in Macon,” Mercer President Bill Underwood said during an announcement at the Rotary Club of Macon. The exact location of the new facility has not been disclosed, though officials indicated an announcement is forthcoming.
The project builds on Mercer’s recent expansion of medical education facilities across Georgia. The university has invested heavily in its medical program over the past decade, including an $18 million expansion of its Savannah campus in 2016 and a $50 million expansion in Columbus in 2022.
The university is also planning to significantly expand its rural medical clinic program, which currently operates in six locations. Plans call for adding 15 to 20 new clinics in rural communities across Georgia, further extending the institution’s healthcare footprint beyond its urban centers.
While the secured funding demonstrates significant public and private sector confidence in the development’s potential to transform downtown Macon, the university continues to seek additional support to fully fund the $75 million facility.
Photo Courtesy
View of Downtown Macon, Georgia
Soglad2005 at English Wikipedia
Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
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