Mercer announced the next location for its School of Medicine, which is currently on the southeast corner of the Macon campus, on Thursday, Feb. 27. The new location will face the Ocmulgee River, along Riverside Drive, between Second Street and Spring Street.
The land is currently not developed, according to reporting from The Macon Melody, but at one point, parts of the 11 plots of land had to be treated for contamination. The total area cost the school $1.9 million, according to The Melody, and it was bought from the Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority, which is led by Alex Morrison '07.
“Developing a riverfront home for the Mercer University School of Medicine seizes a unique opportunity to construct a stunning new facility designed to meet the needs of a growing student population with 21st century technology at an important gateway into Macon,” President Bill Underwood told The Den.
Macon-Bibb County Mayor Lester Miller '91 hailed the potential development that may happen hand-in-hand with the new educational facility in a press release. The roughly eight acres were first slated to be developed around the time that the city and county were consolidated in 2014, but nothing ever happened to the area.
School of Medicine Dean Jean Summer told The Den that a new building would be integral to fitting Mercer's growing medical school as it has added more and more programs over the years since it started in 1982. It is one of only a few buildings on Mercer's undergraduate campus that houses graduate classrooms.
Plans for the old medical school building once the new one is built have not been announced.
Gabriel Kopp '26 is majoring in Journalism and Law and Public Policy at Mercer University. He has written for The Cluster since he started at Mercer, and currently works as co-Editor-in-Chief. When he isn't studying, he enjoys going for runs and reading The New York Times or the AJC while sipping coffee.
