Downtown Turnaround in the works
By WAPT
Friday, November 02, 2007
JACKSON, Miss. -- The city of Jackson's tax picture is in flux, recently highlighted by a near $3 million projected deficit. The financial problems are, in large part, created by falling sales tax numbers and near-stagnant collection of commercial property taxes.
But that is changing. A 16 WAPT investigation shows that while the city is losing sales tax revenues, it will gain nearly $3 million more a year because of commercial projects set to be complete in downtown Jackson over the next two years. WAPT spent several weeks looking into the city's tax records and found from fiscal year 2006 to now, the city's sales tax revenues dropped $2.1 million. But after analyzing nearly a dozen commercial projects set for completion by early 2010, the city can count almost $3 million in new tax collections from those office, retail and residential buildings.
At the bottom floor of the Plaza Building in downtown Jackson, there is a bustle of activity as restaurant operator Ro Sanchez is preparing to open a new Restaurant called Koi. Sanchez has positioned his sushi and martini-themed bar to capitalize on the growth of downtown usiness currently under way. "I've been watching the market, and I've seen the renovations downtown, and there is a lot of growth down here. Everybody, the Pinnacle building is coming, and I really believe this is how it will start," Sanchez said. The start Sanchez talks about is what some call a downtown turnaround.
The Pinnacle at Jackson place is a $43 million office complex set to open by the end of 2008. By 2009, the $100 million project of renovating the King Edward hotel and Standard Life Building should be done. Both have blueprints to turn the old structures into mixed-use buildings with retail, restaurants, apartments and condos.
Just those projects alone will bring more people downtown, all at a time when Jackson's crime rate has captured more media attention than the pace of downtown growth. Mayor Frank Melton's criminal trials and highly publicized efforts to roadblock investors of the King Edward have given critics more than a few reasons to question the city's business climate.
John Lawrence, with the privately funded downtown development group Downtown Partners, said investors who looked to Jackson for building projects didn't look at that. "Investors aren't looking at our community based on who that elected official is," Lawrence said.
Scott Simmons, WAPT News Anchor
