High-end lofts could replace the empty, dilapidated buildings that compose Meadowbrook Mart Shopping Center in Jackson.
Gabriel Prado, CEO and president of PraCon Global Investment Group, shared plans with the Fondren Renaissance Foundation to redevelop the site at 3153 Meadowbrook Rd. that includes a former McRae’s Department Store into lofts.
Prado, who has briefed the Jackson mayor and city council about the development, confirmed in a text message that the PraCon has acquired the old McRae’s site “with a goal of bringing a $60 +/- million economic development project of high end lofts” to anchor the development.
He would not provide additional details, Prado said, because PraCon wants to be respectful of the zoning process it is working through.
“That being said, we are very grateful with the leadership and the staff at the city of Jackson for all of their incredible support,” he said in a text message.
PraCon’s project in north Fondren will be equivalent to those developed by Mike Peters in the middle of Fondren. Peters developed Fondren Corner and Duling School, Prado said.
In a Feb. 3 letter sent to property owners within 160 feet of the site, applicable neighborhood associations and city council members to notify them of the rezoning request, Prado wrote: “We believe this economic development project will be the anchor needed to spur the redevelopment in North Fondren that will have a positive social impact in the neighborhood.”
Jackson City Council President Virgi Lindsay said the project looks promising, could be an asset to the city and the neighborhood, and would increase the tax base.
City Council member Ashby Foote of Ward 1 called the plans exciting and said any time investors put money in projects like that one boosts confidence in the city.
DMG Real Estate Holdings 319 Meadowbrook LLC has filed an application for rezoning from C-3 General Commercial District and R-1 Single-Family Residential District to CMU-1 Commercial Mixed-Use District, Pedestrian-Oriented for the property at 3153 Meadowbrook Road.
The property consists of a commercial building with one tenant (Advance America Cash Advance) and two vacant commercial buildings. The CVS Pharmacy at 305 Meadowbrook Rd. is not included in the plans for redevelopment.
PraCon plans to present the project to the community during a town hall meeting on March 16 at 6 p.m. at its office at 3220 N. State St., which is at the corner of North State Street and Patton Avenue.
The Jackson City Planning Board has scheduled a public hearing about the application on March 23 at 1:30 p.m. in the Andrew Jackson Conference Room of the Warren A. Hood Building, 200 S. President St.
The planning board will make a recommendation about the rezoning, which can be appealed. If there is no appeal, the Jackson City Council would then consider the recommendation of the planning board.
If there is no opposition, the city council would hear the recommendation in April.
In 2015, a project was announced between the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the Baton Rouge data company Venyu Solutions to transform the property into a hub for the hospital’s telehealth program, but the project fell through.
David Pharr and Jason Watkins, who developed the $15-million entertainment destination in Fondren that includes the Capri Theatre, Highball Lanes and The Pearl, were hired to redevelop the former McRae’s Department Store in Meadowbrook Mart into a hub for UMMC’s telehealth program and succeeded into getting various incentives, but the deal fell through after the company involved was sold and the buyer did not go forward with the project.
Still remembered fondly by many Jackson residents, the McRae’s at Meadowbrook Mart was the city’s first full-service department store in the suburbs and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The two-story store built on the site in 1962 was Meadowbrook Mart’s anchor store until it closed in 2005.
