Progress on Neel’s Lofts as the community celebrates major construction milestone with a ceremonial beam signing
“Pulling from one building to the next, making sure that we can get everything fit in and making a lot of adjustments, so it was a very challenging project to start out with, our team has done a really great job,” said Adam Berkstresser, Vice President of Operations for Piedmont Construction Group.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Major progress has been made on Neel’s Lofts in Downtown Macon as the last steel beam has been placed.
Community members and multiple businesses, such as H2 Capital, Piedmont Construction Group, and NewTown Macon, gathered at the construction site to celebrate the milestone with a ceremonial beam signing ceremony.
Representatives spoke before the beam signing, discussing various trials the project faced and the potential impact it holds for the future.
“When I was young, this block was bustling with activity. Neel’s was an icon of retail and downtown was full of energy,” said Robbo Hatcher of H2 Capital and Neel’s Lofts, during the ceremony. “As we know, times and society changed, downtown changed with them and lost that vitality. When we were looking for a project to do in downtown Macon that memory spurred us to make the investment to renew this block that had laid dormant for so long.”
After the signing, the beam was raised and bolted in place right in front of the building on the Cherry Street side, with the signees’ names now forever etched in the building’s history.
James Fritze, President and CEO of NewTown Macon and Adam Berkstresser, Vice President of Operations for Piedmont Construction Group, both say one of the hurdles during the project was pricing coming out of the covid years, but was also excited about the current progress of the building.
“This is a really significant project for Macon. It’s the first time we’ve put a brand new building in the middle of a historic district,” said Fritze. “We tried to save the old historic buildings, but we just couldn’t do it and so we’re real excited to put this 110,000 square foot building in the middle of downtown.”
“We looked at doing some options for a renovation of the old existing Neel’s and Blaire buildings, which at the end, ended up being not feasible,” said Berkstresser. “So, we went with the new building approach and from there, working through the different iterations of drawings.”
“Trying to get the actual dimensions between those buildings proved to be fairly difficult and that was something we continued to work through.”
“Pulling from one building to the next, making sure that we can get everything fit in and making a lot of adjustments, so it was a very challenging project to start out with, our team has done a really great job,” said Berkstresser.
According to NewTown Macon, Neel’s Lofts will bring 95 luxury lofts, two retail spaces, a restaurant, and a coworking space to Cherry and Third Streets in the heart of Downtown Macon and is set to open in 2026.