The largest of several downtown Macon loft conversions now underway has its first major tenant.

The Dannenberg Department Store anchored the block of 3rd Street between Poplar Street and Cherry Street in downtown Macon until the late 1960s. Since then there’s been a revolving cast of smaller tenants, but nothing that lasted terribly long.

Developers converting the upper floors into 68 loft apartments wanted a stable commercial tenant for the ground floor, and they say they found one in Kinetix, a health club chain with gyms all over the U.S. Southeast.

At an announcement in front of the construction site Tuesday, Kinetix owner Mark Cullars said this will be his first downtown location in any city.

"In our northern clubs of north Macon, you know I've got all the members and stuff saying, you know, 'we would consider being downtown more if we had more amenities,'" Cullars said. "This is some of young bankers and young realtors that are actually still trying to figure out where they want to be in Macon.”

The company is hoping to draw customers who work in the city during the day, but also to attract new residents to downtown — each loft above the gym will come with a free membership included in the rent.

Tags: Mercer University, Adam Ragusea, Center for Collaborative Journalism, Brittani Howell, downtown Macon