Drivers could be using part of the Fondren parking garage in about six weeks.
“It should be partially ready to open at the beginning of November,” said Jason Watkins who is managing plans for the garage along with David Pharr.
The garage, which occupies land behind the Fondren Entertainment District (The Pearl tiki bar, Highball Lanes bowling alley and the Capri Theatre), will have entrances off North State Street and Mitchell Avenue.
The structure will provide parking that customers visiting businesses in the area will pay to use along with parking for monthly tenants.
The concrete has been poured for four floors of the garage and the fifth floor should be completed during the next month, he said. After the last floor is poured, the stairs will be added, an elevator installed, stripes put down to divide the 500 parking spaces and security cameras placed.
The developers are negotiating the contract with a management company, a national leader in parking garage management, and are working out details for the payment system for the garage, Watkins said. “When someone drives in, the system will scan the license plate on the car and the payment will be made on an app or at a kiosk,” he said. “A driver won’t have to insert a card or wait on a ticket to be issued.”
An employee will be on site during business hours but will not be there to take payments but to deal with maintenance and other issues, Watkins said.
Also being determined is a security service contract that will provide for armed guards. “Right now, we’ll have security there 24 hours a day,” he said. “That might scale back, depending upon the need.”
Watkins and Pharr, who developed the Fondren Entertainment District, are supervising the project because the location is tied to the entertainment district and they have an established business relationship with a contractor.
AnderCorp, which has offices in Fondren and in Gulfport, is handling the sitework and construction.
The project was initially expected to come in at $15 million but now is estimated to cost about $20 million. The cost of materials increased and the sitework ended up being more involved than expected.
“The soil was worse than the initial boring indicated,” Watkins said. “We had to dig out additional soil from what we planned and had to bring in more soil. That involved moving the storm drainage from where it was planned.”
The garage was initially designed using pre-cast panels but the cost of those rose and the lead time to get them increased. The garage is using a more traditional concrete design that is built in place, he said.
Senate Bill 3150, which was passed in 2022, authorized up to $20 million in bonds to be issued by the Hinds County Development Project Loan Fund “to assist in the development and construction of infrastructure improvements, including a structured parking facility, and other improvements associated with an entertainment development project.”
“State leadership – the governor and speaker of the House of Representatives – directed it this way,” Watkins said. “They saw the need for this garage. It was their choice to help it in this fashion.” Watkins said Hinds County receives a report each month about expenses related to the project. “They fund it, and we pay the contractors,” he said.
The supervisors will be responsible for paying back the loan, Watkins said. Revenue from drivers paying to use the garage for a short time and fees paid by monthly users will go toward the loan, he said.
Hinds County will become the owner of the garage after it is completed.
“It will be the county’s long-term asset,” Watkins said. “We have no interest in being the owner of the garage.”
In February 2022, the Hinds supervisors approved the general concept of the garage and voted to move forward with the legislation. Pharr and Watkins met with a consultant who specializes in parking garages, who indicated that a garage for 500 vehicles would be the right size to accommodate businesses in the area and allow for the area’s future growth.
In a state where drivers like the convenience of front door parking, Pharr believes drivers will use the garage because it will offer an alternative to circling the block and looking for an open parking place. “We think people will like the predictability and security of a parking lot,” he said.
Watkins does not expect the garage to be fully utilized at first but believes drivers who plan to eat at nearby restaurants or to visit retail in the area will get comfortable using it, especially after construction starts on a hotel planned on the North State Street parking lot between The Station JXN and Pig and Pint.
The fee to use the garage has not been set, but it is expected to be about $3 an hour, Watkins said. “We want it to be affordable and don’t want people to think it’s too expensive,” he said.
Nathan Glenn, owner of Rooster’s and Basil’s restaurants in the Fondren Corner Building, welcomes the additional parking.
“Parking is the one thing everyone complains about in Fondren,” he said. “Any additional parking would be good. I think it will be good for the entire area.”
Construction of the garage has meant the parking area that existed behind the Fondren Entertainment District is no longer usable.
“It’s exposed how little parking there is,” Watkins said. “We think people are getting desperate for parking.”
The lack of parking in Fondren has been an issue for many years with various solutions considered.
In 2006, the Fondren Express Trolley that circulated in the neighborhood’s business district was hailed as a way people could deal with the lack of parking. It operated for several years but no longer does.
In 2018, the idea of parking limits in certain areas in the Fondren Business District and permits for long-term parking on residential streets was explored by the city, but nothing came of it.
In 2019, the city of Jackson announced plans to install parking meters in Fondren along North State Street and Duling Avenue, study the impact of the meters and if they should be installed elsewhere in the city. The plans were sidelined after residents opposed the idea.
In 2022, Andrew Mattiace and Mike Peters announced plans for a new six-story apartment building, to be known as Fondren Place 2, to be built behind the Duling School complex. The project was to include two floors of parking that would support the existing commercial uses along Duling Avenue, but the project has not moved forward.
