Future of $165 million airport development uncertain
Plans to build a $165 million mixed-use development at the Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport might never get off the drawing board.
Two years after announcing plans to build the Pinelands Lifestyle Center on airport land in Flowood, developers have yet to sign an agreement to lease the property needed to build it.
Officials with the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority (JMAA), the agency that owns and oversees the airport, are beginning to doubt the plans will ever come to fruition.
“I don’t see the (light at) the end of the tunnel at this point in time,” JMAA Chief Executive Officer Carl Newman said.
‘I continue to be optimistic and look forward to working with the developer when it all comes together, (but) there’s nothing solid at this point.”
In 2015, Freedom Real Estate approached the authority with plans to build the $165 million center.
That December, JMAA granted the Slidell, La.-based firm a 270-day option to lease approximately 130 acres of land off of Airport Road in Flowood.
The property was located behind a shopping center at the corner of Airport Road and Lakeland Drive, which is home to the United Artists movie theater.
Since then, Freedom has been granted two additional extensions, with the last one running out in February.
Newman said previously that he didn’t know if the authority would grant another extension to the company. He said any future decisions would be made after consulting the JMAA board.
“We have not made any decisions at this point,” he said.
No other companies have shown interest in the property, he said.
JMAA is governed by a five-member board appointed by the mayor of the city of Jackson and confirmed by the city council.
The agency oversees the Jackson-Evers airport and around 3,300 acres of land around the airport.
Freedom had planned to build a center that included 350,000 to 500,000 square feet of mixed-use space.
While developers have not signed a lease, other pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place.
In 2014, the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) awarded Freedom up to $48.75 million in “cultural retail attraction,” or CRA, credits to help finance the project.
The credits are part of a now-defunct law that gave tax subsidies to developers to help finance shopping centers. Under the law, developers are awarded up to 30 percent of a project’s total cost through the sales taxes generated from it.
Another shopping center in Rankin County, the Outlets of Pearl, also received tax subsidies.
The Pinelands was approved for rebates in the spring of 2014, months before legislation repealing the CRA law went into effect.
To be eligible for the subsidies, construction on a project must be completed within two years. However, additional time for projects can be granted at the discretion of MDA’s executive director.
Pinelands was given a 48-month extension in January 2016, meaning construction must be finished by January 2020 to qualify for the rebates.
Freedom officials couldn’t be reached for comment.
