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Both issues swept the headlines. In the past 365 days, the Jackson Police Department has gotten a new police chief and Precinct Four has gotten its third commander in almost as many months.
In fact, Northsiders will soon see a change in many leadership positions. Following the general election this year, Hinds County District One has elected a new supervisor in Robert Graham. And following a special election in Jackson Ward One, the city voted for a new alderman in Jeff Weill.
The LeFleur Lakes project has also experienced change. Now, there are two plans. One, supported by the governing body overseeing flood control on the Pearl River, and another, created as an alternative by North Jackson oilman John McGowan.
The Northside’s schools will also change. Private academies like Jackson Prep and Jackson Academy spring-boarded into new expansion projects with successful capital campaigns.
The Jackson skyline will also be dotted with new structures, as several construction projects continue.
Work this year began in earnest on an $80 million project to restore the King Edward Hotel. Work also continued on the $39 million Pinnacle building and on the roughly $60 million Capital City Conference Center.
Ridgeland and Madison are also expected to experience new economic growth in the coming year as new shopping centers open their doors to eager customers. Renaissance at Colony Park promises to be a strong attraction for local, out-of-town and out-of-state shoppers and national retailers.
Another project at the Renaissance, the 200 Renaissance Tower, has also drawn the attention of residents. The tower, although controversial, has already begun going up, following two landmark votes by the Ridgeland Board of Aldermen.
Residents will also have new ways to get to their favorite shops. Construction was completed on U.S. 51 in Ridgeland. And, in Fondren, the Fondren Express was implemented.
WHILE ELECTIONS and economic development grabbed most of the headlines, the Northside’s art and medical scenes also made a splash, with the opening of the new Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson and the new crafts center for the Mississippi Craftsmen’s Guild in Ridgeland.
Northsiders in coming months will also have better healthcare, thanks to multimillion dollar expansion projects at three area hospitals: Baptist Medical Center, River Oaks Health Systems and St. Dominic’s Health Services.
Perhaps the biggest story of the year was the Jackson Police Department. The Jackson City Council, in December, voted 4 to 2 to confirm Hinds County Sheriff Malcolm McMillin as the city’s new police chief.
Ward One Councilman Weill and Ward Seven Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon were among the sheriff’s supporters. Council members Leslie McLemore and Kenneth Stokes voted against him.
The move came after weeks of speculation regarding his approval and after Mayor Frank Melton asked former Police Chief Shirlene Anderson to step down. The change was one of several that occurred within the department this year in regard to personnel and leadership.
Notably, for Northsiders, Precinct Four has gone through three commanders. Citing a rise in property crime in North Jackson, Anderson, earlier this year, appointed then Cmdr. Ron Sampson as Precinct Four’s new leader, reassigning Cmdr. Steve Sansom to another position within the department.
Sampson was appointed in early October to the post, but quickly moved up the ladder to one of several deputy chiefs after McMillin took over.
AFTER A PRESS conference announcing that he had been chosen to be chief, McMillin made several promotions. Others included making JPD Spokesman Cmdr. Lee Vance assistant chief, and moving training officer Cmdr. Tyrone Lewis to deputy chief.
Cmdr. Kenneth Goodrum was appointed in November to head up Precinct Four. The 13-year military veteran served in Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s and in the Bosnia campaign later in the decade.
He said his priorities are to get a handle on crime in the precinct while improving morale.
McMillin set similar priorities. The new chief said, after his confirmation, that he would evaluate and possibly redistribute the department’s manpower; ensure officers have the equipment needed to fight crime and work to increase officer morale.
The department, more specifically Anderson, came under fire for a lack of leadership in the wake of higher crime across the city. The Jackson Police Officers Association, the union representing Jackson’s finest, claimed that there was an officer shortage and officers didn’t have the equipment to do the job.
Union President Juan Cloy said the department had become a laughing stock throughout the state.
Officer pay and overtime were also problems, according to union officials. The department, this year, has been short between 75 and 100 officers. (Precinct Four was short 25 most of the year.)
Lewis, in an earlier interview, said the department was in danger of losing about $1.3 million in federal grant money earmarked to pay new officers’ salaries. With a recent graduating class of nine officers from the Jackson Police Training Academy and a large recruit class, JPD will likely maintain the funds.
Three of those officers were moved to Precinct Four to help alleviate the shortage on the Northside.
Those officers, David Doty, Richard Stevenson and Jarrett Wells, have all begun work. The officers said they want to work with residents and businesses to help keep property crime at a minimum.
ONE STORY RELATED to property crime on the Northside made international news. On December 1, a Fondren business owner miraculously escaped death when a robber’s bullet ricocheted off of his wedding band.
Donnie Register, the owner of The Antique Market on N. State Street in Fondren, was shot in the hand after two black males entered his store that morning demanding money.
Precinct Four Officer Robby Huff said as the men (They were two black males, one was apparently armed.) fled the scene, one suspect allegedly shot him. Register held his hand up to deflect the bullet, which hit his golden band, busting into pieces. One piece was lodged in his neck.
ABC’s Good Morning America and the British Broadcasting Company picked up the story. Shortly after the story hit the national airwaves, police nabbed one of the suspects involved in the shooting.
As for the ring, it was damaged. But, Register told local television stations, he won’t replace it.
The sheriff’s department also beefed up patrol in the area, assigning a deputy on horseback to patrol the area. The move, along with the capture of Michael Allen, one of the suspects, has helped make
Northsiders feel safer. Belmont Trapp, the secretary of the local Community Oriented Policing Group, said the department likely wouldn’t have caught Allen under the previous leadership.
McMillin won’t be the only elected/appointed official that will have to get acclimated to his new role next year. The past year marked statewide and local elections. Hinds County district one voters narrowly selected former JPD Spokesman Robert Graham as their new supervisor.
Graham, a Democrat, defeated Republican challenger Roger Davis in the November 6 general election, by 93 votes. Independent Marcella Patton brought up the rear with 256 ballots cast in her favor.
In other races, Democrat Don Palmer defeated independent incumbent Nicki Martinson Boland for District One justice court judge. In another vote for change, Republican Michael Guest defeated
Republican incumbent David Clark to become Madison-Rankin district attorney. And, in Hinds County, Democratic attorney Robert Shuler Smith defeated incumbent Faye Peterson for district attorney.
District 29 also will have a new state lawmaker. Democrat David Blount defeated incumbent Sen. Richard White, a Republican, by roughly 2,000 votes to clinch the seat.
VOTERS STUCK WITH the incumbents in some races, though. Among races, two-term incumbent District 66 Rep. Cecil Brown, a Democrat, won reelection over Republican Cory Wilson. District 25 Sen. Walter Michel also defeated Democratic challenger Michael Hardin.
In other races, District 58 Rep. Rita Martinson was reelected, as was District 64 Rep. Bill Denny. Madison County’s Board of Supervisors also saw changes. District One Supervisor Doug Jones, an incumbent, was defeated by John Bell Crosby.
And, in District Three, D.I. Smith won the seat to replace Andy Taggart, who decided to step down at the end of his term. For District 20 senator, Lee Yancey will replace incumbent Sen. Charlie Ross, who stepped down to run for lieutenant governor.
Graham will replace Supervisor Charles Barbour in January. His priorities are to fight crime in the district. And, with his experience on the Jackson police force, he said he’s the best man for the job.
He recently said that he would like to increase funding for the police department and sheriff’s office, and will work with the Board of Supervisors to appoint more judges to hear criminal cases.
Brown said his priorities haven’t changed since he was first elected almost eight years ago. He said fully funding education each year and reducing the state’s grocery tax are on his short list. He will also support legislation to implement a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program to help reduce the city’s budgetary woes. The city’s budget, for the 2007-08 fiscal year fell short of being balanced.
Many of the problems, he said, are related to the number of tax-exempt properties in the city limits. The city, Brown said, has to provide service to state and county-owned properties, which don’t pay for the services. Last year, a bill that would give the city an additional $2 million a year passed in the state
House of Representatives but failed to make it through the Senate.
Blount said he would like to do the same on the other side of the State Capitol. He said a lot of what he will be able to do, though, will be contingent on his committee assignments.
WHILE BROWN AND Blount work to help the city with budget issues, Shuler Smith and Guest will work to better prosecute criminals. Both said in earlier interviews with The Northside Sun that they had their work cut out for them.
Guest said he hopes to give stiffer sentences to criminals. One of the cornerstones of his campaign was to cut down on plea bargains. Once he and his staff take office, his staff will begin evaluating cases that have been awaiting trial. He also plans to contact local law enforcement agencies.
He said the office will put an emphasis on habitual offenders, violent offenders and sexual offenders.
Shuler Smith said he will work to handle a backlog of more than 600 cases.
One special election, though, specifically affected Northsiders. North Jackson attorney Jeff Weill was elected this year in a special election to replace Ward One Councilman Ben Allen, who stepped down because of health problems.
Weill, a former prosecutor and certified mediator, won 59.2 percent of the vote in a special election in August, defeating John Ditto, Lenard Jenkins and David Archie. He took office shortly after.
Ben Allen, who later received an all clear from his doctors, decided to get back into public life, but in a different capacity. Allen, in October, was named president of the Downtown Jackson Partners. He replaced John Lawrence, who stepped down from the post to take a job in Memphis.
The DJP, according to its Web site, is a business improvement district that is dedicated to improving the aesthetics and environment of the 66-block area that makes up the downtown corridor. Before stepping down, Lawrence was instrumental in improving the economy.
In the past six years, more than $125 million in development projects came to Jackson. About $200 million have recently started and another $800 million are in the works. Allen, in a previous interview, said his work on the council had given him knowledge of government and economic development.
WHILE ALLEN WORKED in 2007 to bring development to the downtown corridor, another North Jackson businessman created a plan this year to develop Jackson along the Pearl River.
North Jackson oilman John McGowan has recently modified his LeFleur Lake flood control and economic development proposal for the Pearl River. The move comes after the body overseeing the project selected a scaled-back version of the plan in lieu of his larger concept earlier this year.
McGowan’s new plan includes 27 islands and more than 100 miles of developable shoreline in Hinds and Rankin counties. He said smaller islands would provide developers with more waterfront property, increasing their value. McGowan said he was confident that his plan will attract support from residents living in the floodplain.
The plan, though, drew mixed reactions from members of the Rankin-Hinds Pearl River Flood Control and Drainage District Board. Flowood Mayor Gary Rhoads didn’t support the project. Others, like Jackson businessman Con Maloney, said the project was worth considering.
Earlier this year, the levee board, in response to economic and environmental concerns, voted on a scaled-back Lower Lake plan that would cut the development’s size in half and the price tag by roughly two-thirds.
The new development features one lake at the southern end of Hinds and Rankin counties. The Lower Lake plan, according to maps, provides little shoreline for North Jackson.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently studying whether the new project will work hydraulically. The new project, officials said, should provide flood protection and some economic development. The scaled-back plan was estimated to cost around $400 million to complete.
In a report leaked to The Clarion-Ledger earlier this year, the corps estimated that the cost of the larger project would be $1.4 billion. The project, in the report, was also criticized for being harmful to wetlands, bottomland hardwoods and endangered species.
The Lower Lake plan, levee board officials said, will also work with the proposed Airport Parkway, a massive thoroughfare that would connect downtown Jackson to the Jackson-Evers International Airport.
DESPITE THE NEW plan, McGowan said his concept would still be cheaper to build. He has been working consistently to bolster public support. In January, McGowan said voters had thrown their support behind his project. Nearly 800 people responded to a survey he mailed out in late 2006, who said they would rather support his project instead of the proposed Airport Parkway.
One of the two projects, as well as the Airport Parkway, will likely go through. Jackson Mayor Frank Melton said in a recent interview that the city will soon receive the funding to obtain land along the proposed path of the parkway, in the High Street corridor.
Although nothing is official, he said the other two members of the Airport Parkway Commission, Flowood Mayor Gary Rhoads and Pearl Mayor Jimmy Foster, have allocated the remaining $7 million in federal funding to the city to obtain property in Hinds County.
Melton said right-of-way acquisition could begin in 2008, as soon as the city receives the funds.
While questions about the Pearl River’s development remain, there’s no question that students on the Northside will have better educational opportunities in the coming years.
Northside students are expected to benefit from millions of dollars recently invested in area schools, thanks, in part, to much-needed capital campaigns.
Several projects were slated to begin this year at the Northside’s private schools. Among them, Jackson Prep began work on a new dining facility and Christ Covenant School started work on a new multi-purpose facility.
The projects were part of a handful that had already been completed over the summer and in the previous year.
When school started back, Northside kids benefited from football field renovations at Jackson Academy, six new classrooms at St. Joseph’s Catholic School and seven new classrooms at First Presbyterian Day School. At St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, students benefited from athletic additions. And, at Madison-Ridgeland Academy, a new hospitality center and kindergarten building greeted students.
EDUCATORS SAID the improvements were needed to give students better learning environments, less cramped conditions and more opportunities to learn. A $580,000 football field renovation at JA meant that the field will stand up to more punishment, officials there said. The field will be used for physical education classes, athletic practice and marching band practice.
At Prep, the school, this year, was finalizing plans for a groundbreaking for a new dining commons with a much larger, 1,000-square-foot kitchen and private dining hall. The facility will also have amphitheater seating for 100 outside.
Projects like that are being funded through capital campaigns. Earlier this year, the school kicked off a fundraising drive more than $4 million.
Other schools, like First Presbyterian in Jackson, benefited from church growth. Now, as the church expands, the school also has seven new classrooms.
Public schools and local taxpayers have also invested millions into their children’s academic future. According to the Jackson Public Schools Web site, the school board voted on September 10 to spend $36 million in bond money to fund renovations and upgrades at existing schools.
Of those, Casey Elementary is receiving a $5 million facelift, with a new building addition expected. The vote also included spending for the design of several new schools as well.
And in Madison, a new school is planned to accommodate the district’s mushrooming student population. The kindergarten through fifth-grade school will be built on district property in the Mannsdale area.
Site work was being done on the project this year. It’s slated to be finished in 2009.
While parents worked to support their schools financially, the Jackson City Council threw its support behind the renovation of one of Jackson’s most famous landmarks.
The council voted 6-1 to provide tax increment financing to fund infrastructure on the King Edward Hotel. It also gave up its sales tax revenue temporarily to help the hotel stay afloat after it opens.
David Watkins, a North Jackson attorney turned investor, said, with those hurdles removed, work can begin in earnest to restore the 13-story landmark. In the coming months, residents will see two large elevators installed on the outside of the structure and trucks leaving with debris.
FOR WATKINS, the work is a sign that his vision will come into fruition. Watkins has been working to get the hotel restored for the past six years.
Watkins, along with the hotel’s other owners, New Orleans Saints running back Deuce McAllister, and a New Orleans-based firm, has been working to get local and federal approval for the project.
Because it is a national registered landmark, blue prints and renovation plans have had to be finalized by local, state and national agencies. Before work could begin to restore the hotel, the developers had to foot the bill for a $2 million clean-up and structural analysis.
For Watkins, though, it’s been worth it. The hotel, once restored, will mark a spiritual rebirth of Jackson. Once completed, it will feature 186 luxury hotel rooms and 55 apartments for urban living. Developers have struck a deal with the Hilton Gardens hotel chain to give the hotel name recognition.
Downstairs, the King Edward will maintain its great hall and lobby, each restored to its original 1920s-era grandeur. A new restaurant will be added, as well as a couple of smaller retailers to meet the needs of residents and guests staying there.
The hotel was built in the 1920s. It thrived until the 1960s, when its owner filed for bankruptcy. Since then, its roof has caved in and the structure has become a health hazard.
Although the city has given up sales tax for the next few years, the school district will likely receive a six-figure revenue from the hotel. It will receive additional funding to pay back bond issues on the Capital City Convention Center through additional restaurant and tourism tax the hotel will generate.
It will likely open in 2009 and it will tie in nicely with other new developments in the city.
While the King Edward could help Jackson pay back its loans on the Convention Center, it might benefit the facility in other ways. The hotel will give the city some much-needed hotel space.
WORK BEGAN on the $60 million Convention Center in 2006. It is expected to open in 2009.
The 249,000-square-foot facility will feature two large exhibit halls and large banquet halls that can be subdivided into smaller rooms. On its second floor, it will have a series of 10 meeting rooms that are 1,000-square-feet each. The center is one of several projects under way in the city.
The two-story structure, according to artist renderings, will also have glass windows similar to the Mississippi TelCom Center. Northsiders can see the project take shape now, as crews work to build out the large steel skeleton of the facility. Officials said construction is moving ahead on schedule.
The convention center has already generated a buzz in and outside of Jackson, officials said. “My understanding is that there’s been substantial interest in the building,” Charles Alexander, a partner with Dale and Associates, the firm that designed the facility. “The operators of the building are already booking people for when it opens in 2009.”
The convention center complex was proposed under former Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. Now, it joins several other projects under construction in Jackson.
At an event marking the construction milestone in October, Jackson city officials were enthusiastic about the city’s development. Jackson Mayor Frank Melton said the city has more cranes downtown than at any other time in the municipality’s history.
Of the other developments that are under way in Jackson is the $39 million Pinnacle office building at One Jackson Place and the 14-block Old Capitol Green Project.
Steve Jones, operations director with Full Spectrum said construction is expected to begin in early 2008 on the $1.1 billion Old Capitol Green project. Developers, in late 2007, were hammering out the final details to acquire the needed land to make the development a reality.
The massive project, this year, was expanded from eight to 14 acres. Once completed, the project is expected to be a huge draw for tourists and a boost for sales and property tax in the city. It will be a mixed-use development, with a small hotel, 4,500 dwelling units, retail and restaurant, and theater space.
IN THE PAST YEAR, engineers have been working to identify issues related to infrastructure, like storm water drainage, utilities and property acquisition.
About 18 months ago, Full Spectrum began negotiations with the state. In 2006, the group made a formal announcement that they were heading up the project.
Architects, earlier this year, hosted a planning charrette to lay plans on the table for the project. The original cost of the project has expanded from $160 million to more than a billion dollars. It is bordered by State Street, East Silas Brown Street, Pearl Street and Jefferson Street.
It is composed of land owned by the state, private owners and Entergy.
But downtown Jackson isn’t the only portion of the city experiencing growth. Fondren district is also seeing new economic development. Construction, this year, began on the $25 million Fondren Place project.
Construction on the first phase of the multimillion project is slated to be finished in spring 2009. The mixed-use development will feature a combination of newly constructed buildings and the renovation of the existing Duling School building. It will also house retail space and luxury condominiums.
The first phase of the project included renovating the 20,000-square foot facility and creating a new building at the corner of Duling Avenue and North State Street. Although the project isn’t completed, it’s already attracting businesses. While the first phase continued, the second phase also began this year.
Two of which are a new restaurant called the Auditorium, and Bohemian Kitchens, an Interior design firm. A new 45,000-square foot building on the property will also house a BankPlus branch office and a Starbucks. The upper floors will house three firms.
To accommodate increased traffic, the project will also include a new parking facility. The development is being constructed by Mike Peters, Andrew Mattiace and the Jackson school district.
Duling was built in 1927 and was named after a longtime Jackson educator. In recent years, the school building has been the site of the district’s adult education program.
The property is the first site in the state for potential development under the School Property Development Act of 2005. It provides a way for school districts to dispose of unused land and property in an effort to bring more money for the district.
WHILE NEW GROWTH is coming to Jackson, it’s also coming to Ridgeland and Madison.
One of Ridgeland’s biggest stories this year is also one of it’s most controversial. Construction began late this year on the 200 Renaissance Tower, a 13-story building that makes up only a small portion of the Renaissance Development, but has taken up a large portion of newspaper headlines.
Bulldozers and back hoes began doing the dirt work on the 200 Renaissance tower, a 13-story building that will house the Butler-Snow Law firm.
The $60 million to $70 million tower is expected to be completed in 2009. Work began on the tower after the Ridgeland Board of Aldermen narrowly approved a site plan for the facility, with Mayor Gene McGee passing the tie-breaking vote.
Earlier this year, a variance request to build the tower had been approved by the board following a “marathon” public hearing that lasted until well after midnight, in which hundreds of supporters and detractors turned out to voice their concerns.
The tower, though, had been reduced from 17 to 13 stories to compromise with those opposing it.
Developer Buster Bailey, with the H.C. Bailey Company in Ridgeland, the firm building the tower, said he’s disappointed that so many residents were against the project. “I never intended to build anything but the highest quality developments,” he said.
The 200 tower, once completed, will feature a cream-colored exterior and large picture windows. It will only make up a small portion of the 400 to 500-acre Colony Park development, which stretches from Old Agency Road in Ridgeland to Madison Avenue in Madison.
In September, the Ridgeland Community Awareness Committee decided to issue a complaint against Bailey’s proposed variance for the building the tower 17 stories.
Because of the controversy of the variance request, the September 10 meeting was moved from Ridgeland City Hall to the municipal court to accommodate more people.
ISSUES SURROUNDING the variance concerned the height of the tower and the amount of traffic it would generate. Others were concerned that providing Bailey with a variance on the tower would further alter the master plans for the development, which will take another 10 to 20 years to build out.
The tower, once completed, will be one of several on the property. It will be located near the Cellular South tower and the Merrill Lynch building.
To prevent problems such as that one from rising again, the city has begun working with the RAMPUp Ridgeland organization. RAMPUp will serve as a guide for a future development in and around the city.
It will work to promote the city as business-friendly while preserving Ridgeland’s small town culture.
While one aspect of the Colony Park development has drawn criticism, another has drawn attention from retailers and restaurateurs from around the nation.
Work is now under way on the Renaissance at Colony Park. The open-air shopping center, according to Jan Mattiace with Mattiace Properties, will be a 550,000-square-foot “lifestyle center.” Although some stores will open sooner, Renaissance will have its grand opening in March, officials said.
The 57-acre facility will feature European and Mediterranean-style architecture and a main street atmosphere for shoppers. It is bordered by I-55, Old Agency Road and Highland Colony Parkway.
Officials say the shopping center will have high visibility from the interstate and will be a draw for local, out-of-town and out-of-state shoppers. Once completed, it will likely feature outdoor cafes, water attractions and music pumped out of loudspeakers.
Although it hasn’t been completed, the lifestyle center has already drawn big-name retailers.
Some of those include a Banana Republic, a Bath and Body Works, a J.Jill, White House/Black Market and Talbot’s retailers.
Two other restaurants, a P.F. Chang’s China Bistro and a Biaggi’s Ristorante Italiano, the first one from the national chain in the Deep South, have already opened in the shopping center.
The Ridgeland Board of Aldermen recently approved new site plans for one of the facility’s anchor store sites, because of a national buy-out, officials said. The site was supposed to be home to the high-end Parisian store, but the chain was bought out by Belk, Mattiace said.
Belk, which already had a store at Northpark Mall a short drive away, decided that it didn’t want to compete with itself in the same market.
WHILE RETAILERS FLOCK to the new developments in Ridgeland and Jackson, they’re also enjoying traffic improvements to one of the area’s most traveled roadways, Highway 51.
Officials with the state Department of Transportation wrapped up construction on a $15 million road widening project on a five mile stretch of the highway. The project, which was plagued with soil problems and other concerns early on, was completed about two years past its original completion date.
The project included adding new north and south-bound lanes to highway along a stretch from Moon Street in Ridgeland to north of Hoy Road in Madison.
And, in Fondren, the Fondren Express was implemented. Those traveling through the area could make stops on the trolley service at Old Canton Road and North State Street. Early figures, this year, showed the trolley had become an instant success.
Art lovers have also been flocking this year to the new Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA) at the state’s new Art Pavilion.
The museum opened its doors at the new location in June. The 54,000-square foot facility nearly doubled the space of the former museum and will allow the museum to display nearly 4,000 pieces of art from the MMA’s permanent collection.
Museum officials raised nearly $12.5 million for the $14 million project. MMA also received a $1 million grant from the Kresge Foundation.
The pieces are displayed in a permanent exhibit called “The Mississippi Story,” telling the history and culture of the state. MMA’s first special exhibit this year was called “Between God and Man: Angels in Italian Art.”
Moving the museum to the arts pavilion became an issue during the 2005 session of the Legislature.
During a special session of the Legislature, the lawmakers approved $2 million in bonds for a new building to house the museum.
The pavilion’s design, officials said, reflected the museum’s mission to become a symbolic “museum without walls,” an inviting public space that offered relevant cultural experiences to Jackson residents and the state.
The museum now is working on plans to develop a green space near the property.
While Jackson revels in its new art showplace, Ridgeland craftsmen are also enjoying a new home.
THE CRAFTSMEN’S Guild of Mississippi celebrated the grand opening of the Mississippi Crafts Center in June. It offers 5,000 square feet of available space for rental for special events and workshops. It also features retractable glass walls, wireless Internet access, well-lit parking and a kitchen.
The $7.2 million center was created as a vision that would serve the entire state through tourism and economic development. Officials with the group said the 20,000-square-foot facility would be used as a gathering place and will be used for a variety of different purposes, like wedding receptions.
Construction on the project began in 2004. It is located on five wooden acres on the Natchez Trace north in Ridgeland.
Northsiders, thanks to projects in 2007, will have new places to shop, enjoy art and eat. And, when residents get sick, they’ll have updated hospitals to visit.
Three Northside hospitals have invested more than $87 million in expansion projects this year. Northsiders have already benefited from one project this year and will benefit from the others in 2008.
Baptist Health Systems this year began adding a six-story tower west of the hospital on State Street to provide more convenient access to its cardiovascular and women’s health services. River Oaks Health System in Flowood is now adding a four-story complex with 48 new beds to accommodate more patients.
While construction continues on those projects, St. Dominic Health Services opened its doors to Dominican Plaza about a year and a half ago.
The Lakeland Drive hospital is now making upgrades in its behavioral services unit and a nursing unit. St. Dominic is also building a new facility in Madison.
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