The city of Jackson and the Jackson Redevelopment Authority want to see a hotel constructed across from the Jackson Convention Center in downtown Jackson.
The city and JRA issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a master developer to create a mixed-use development with a 335-room, full-service hotel, 1,200-space parking garage and community green space on the 7.7 acres across from the convention center, which is located at 105 E. Pascagoula St.
Rickey Thigpen, president and chief executive officer at Visit Jackson, said having a hotel attached to the convention center, as it was designed to have, would help bring small national and regional conventions to town.
“One of the challenges we have as we go after small national and regional conventions is that some of them will specify the convention center must have a hotel attached to it,” he said.”
Since the Marriott in downtown Jackson closed, there is a need for additional hotel rooms not just for visitors who are part of conventions but for all travelers, he said.
Chloe Dotson, director of the city’s Department of Planning and Development, said interest in the RFP has been strong. “We’ve received positive feedback,” she said.
Responses to the RFP are due by Oct. 17. The city expects to award a contract in May 2024.
John Gomez, president of Downtown Jackson Partners, also believes there is a need for a convention center hotel. He met with Dotson earlier this year and has had subsequent conversations after the RFP was released.
“A convention center hotel is an extremely important component in the development of that property,” Gomez said. “It would help attract new business to the Jackson Convention Complex, but more importantly, it would help retain or bring back events and conferences. A parking garage, an inviting public space, residential component and restaurants would complement the hotel.”
The idea of a hotel across from the convention center is nothing new.
Jackson Mayors Harvey Johnson and Frank Melton tried for one. This RFP is a second effort at bringing a convention center hotel to fruition for Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.
This RFP is different from earlier ones because the city wants to create a destination that would connect the Mississippi Blues Trail, the Mississippi Museum of Art, the Russell C. Davis Planetarium that is undergoing renovation and other attractions.
The green space that is part of the development would be attractive for various uses such as musical events, festivals and during events such as the annual Mal’s St. Paddy’s Day Parade festivities and the U.S.A. International Ballet Competition that attract people downtown, she said.
The RFP states: “We are seeking proposals that create a place ‘place making’ as a destination – an experience that intertwines green space, outdoor entertainment and museum possibilities, parking garage, commercial, mixed-use, retail, a hotel and restaurants.”
The RFP lists these three phases:
“Phase 1: entertainment and public green space, convention center hotel that offers an attractive price point that supports events at the convention complex and structured parking for all associated uses as well as parking to support the downtown campus of Jackson State University and downtown events related to the convention complex and other facilities.
“Phase 2: a mix of restaurants that offer unique cuisines across a number of price points. Also recommend the development of a food hall since this site is in proximity to a number of amenities that will support a food hall including, residential office and special event facilities.
“Phase 3: A variety of types of mixed-use mid-market mixed income residential units on non-section 108 property.”
The second phase would include commercial properties built around the parking garage, and 400 apartments or condominiums, another parking garage and additional open space would be in the third phase.
The developer is expected to engage the general public through extensive community focus groups, meetings, charrettes and other venues for neighborhood data collection, according to the RFP. The city of Jackson mayor and city council and entities such as Visit Jackson, Downtown Partners and others should be included, according to the RFP.
The city hopes for a single master developer who can put together all three phases of the project who would bring in partners if needed, Dotson said.
The RFP provides an economic, demographic and tourism analysis of Jackson that updates components covered in the 2018 Hunden Strategies Market Study.
The RFP provides this information:
- The Jackson tourism industry was at a high in 2019 with the opening of the Two Mississippi Museums, the Westin Hotel and the Residence Inn and then the pandemic disrupted travel and resulted in the closure of many of the city’s major venues. The Museum to Market Trail, which connects the LeFleur’s Bluff Museum District to downtown with a recreational trail, and discussion at the at the state level about a new stadium for JSU, with one possible location being downtown and near the convention center are named as two new factors shaping the development and opportunity downtown.
- The closure of the Marriott Jackson left 389 hotel rooms in downtown close to the convention center complex. In 2018, there were 603 “upper to upper-scale” hotel rooms downtown, including The West Jackson, King Edward Hilton Garden Inn and the Marriott Jackson.
- Six hundred thirteen new units have been added downtown, including 155 units at the Walthall Lofts, 103 units at the Courthouse Lofts and 23 lofts at the Lamar Life since the 2018 study and about 300 units are in the development pipeline looking to make it to construction in the next two years.” The conclusion is that demand for more residential units in downtown will grow as nighttime entertainment and retail offerings increase.
- The demand for office space in downtown was impacted by the pandemic “in a way that is somewhat unpredictable at this time. Some seem to want to spread out their footprint and accommodate pandemic space needs permanently, and some have explored permanently decreasing their footprint due to remote work. The second quarter of 2021 has shown a marketed daytime population downtown, with many offices, gradually returning to in-person work.”
- Retail offerings have “improved slightly” in downtown since the 2018 study and the number of restaurant options downtown is “largely holding even.”
Open since 2009, the convention complex features 330,000 square feet of flexible exhibit, ballroom and meeting space.
The city took out a $65 million bond to fund construction of the center in 2006 that it is still paying off.
To help pay the debt, the city passed and pledged a specialty tax on hotels and restaurants, but the tax revenue falls short, especially after the pandemic caused many conventions and meetings to be canceled.
The city council in February 2022 designated more than half a million dollars for the convention center after Lumumba said the center would have to close without it.
Federal coronavirus funds provided the $570,000 allocation, which was to pay utilities and other expenses for the remaining fiscal year.
