THREE multimillion-dollar projects planned for the Northside have been temporarily put on hiatus as developers weather the economic storm and wait for contracts to be finalized.

The projects, which include Whitney Place, the District at Eastover, and a proposal designed to transform property in Belhaven into a mixed-use development, promise to generate millions of dollars in new sales tax and property tax revenue for the capital city and improve the quality of life for residents overall.

Before construction can begin on Whitney Place, developer David Watkins said the financial markets will have to get better.

“Our goal for a long-term interest rate is six percent, but now, interest rates are three to four points higher,” he said. “There’s no point in locking in a high interest rate now.

“Even though they have the stimulus package, lenders have no interest in making the loans they made three years ago, and we want the development to be profitable,” Watkins said. “We deal with several financial groups and they are constantly making changes to their policies.”

To save money, developers have stopped work with architects for the time being and are looking to restart the project in the summer or fall of 2010. Whitney Place will be located on the west side of North State Street in Fondren and was named after Watkins’ daughter-in-law Whitney, who recently passed away from cancer.

The project will stretch from Butterfly Yoga to the Antique Shop and will include demolishing the strip center that’s in place now and building a high-end retail center that will have an emphasis on culture and the arts.

Watkins and other developers purchased the shopping center last December and have worked out an agreement with the owner of the Pix/Capri Theater to develop it as well.

“It will have upscale chains and local retailers, but the arts will distinguish it from other developments,” he said. Behind the retail center, Watkins hopes to add residential units, ranging from upper-scale condos for doctors, to more affordable apartments for up-and-coming artists, law and medical students.

“We’ll have millionaires next to college kids next to retirees,” he said. “It will enhance the area because it will have a great diversity of people.” Additionally, Whitney Place will have a good bit of public space, including walking trails, an amphitheater and places where children can play.

“This will be a significant structure. From the day it’s built, it will be historically significant,” he said. “They might change the name of it in a hundred years, but it’s a development that people will want to maintain.”

WHILE WATKINS is waiting for better interest rates, the District at Eastover won’t begin until developers hammer out a contract with Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann’s office and the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA).

Ted Duckworth, Michael Barranco and Breck Hines, developers of the $150 million project, recently met with local leaders and media outlets to discuss the challenges they’ve faced in getting the mixed-use project off the ground.

The development will be located on the former Mississippi School for the Blind property on Eastover Drive. Duckworth was awarded the contract to build there in late 2007.

Of the difficulties, Duckworth told the Sun that Hosemann is asking too much to lease the property, making it less profitable to build there, and has created a timeline for developing the project, something that will be impossible to follow.

He’s concerned that if the project isn’t completed within that timeline that he and other developers will be fined or forced to forfeit their project, regardless of how much is finished.

Duckworth said he recently received a list of terms from the secretary of state’s office and sent it back with the developers’ responses. “We’re now waiting to hear a response from the state,” he said. “It won’t happen the way the term sheet is crafted.”

Pamela Weaver, communications director for the Hosemann, declined to comment because of pending negotiations.

IF THE PROJECT does get off the ground, it will be well worth the struggles. Plans call for tearing down the dilapidated structures that are there, adding new infrastructure, a bus barn and new home for the blind school’s superintendent. Additionally, it will have a site for a 30-room hotel and a theater.

In all, the District will create about 200,000 square feet of retail space, 40,000 square feet of residential space, 80,000 feet of hotel space and 320,000 square feet of office and general commercial space. The first phase of the project will take about $85 million to complete, he said.

“We want to put up a facility that won’t be outdated in 10 to 15 years,” he said at the meeting.

Barranco said the project will include treescapes, canopies and sidewalks to make the district walkable for visitors and residents. The project, once completed, will generate millions of dollars for Jackson and Hinds County, including $2.35 million in property tax, $469,000 in personal property taxes and $2.3 million in sales tax.

ANOTHER development that will generate sales and property tax revenue for the city of Jackson will be built in Belhaven across from Baptist Hospital. In 2007, the hospital, along with the Greater Belhaven Neighborhood Foundation, announced plans for the project.

The proposal would include property bordered by Fortification, Poplar, North State and Jefferson streets. During a meeting in 2007, Baptist President and CEO Kurt Metzner envisioned a development that would include office and retail space, a small hotel and residential units.

Robby Channell, in corporate communications at Baptist, said hospital officials are unsure when construction will begin. The project has stalled because the economy hit rock bottom after the hospital put out bids for a developer.

“It is too early to tell when any construction will start,” he wrote in an e-mail. “It seems like we will start on a smaller scale and as the economy rebounds, we can move forward on the entire project.”