An attorney, who renovated a Victorian house on Main Street in Madison, likes the way the city’s downtown is shaping up.
“The city has done a good job,” said Matthew Thompson, whose firm Thompson Addison renovated and moved into the house built in 1895 in 2020.
Development has been slow, he said, due to covid and its economic impact, he said.
“What’s been done so far has been great and the future plans are good,” Thompson said.
In the four years he has had his office at 2060 Main Street, he’s watched numerous New Orleans style townhouses go up as part of The Village at Madison, an 18-acre residential and commercial development located off Main Street and Crawford Street.
He’s observed as a gateway arch was installed as a “welcome” at the west end of Main Street.
He’s also seen new restaurants open within walking distance of his office and viewed the city’s progress in transforming the grounds of the Montgomery House, which sits across from his office, into a botanical garden.
Still to be developed in downtown is the 17-acre parcel at U.S. Highway 51 and Main Street.
Leah Kemp, director of the Fred Carl, Jr. Small Town Center, a community design center in the College of Architecture, Art and Design at MSU, said the town square location is prime real estate.
“A lot could happen on that site given its location,” she said.
That was the thought in 2020 when Atlanta-based development Greenstone Properties was announced as the developer for Madison at Main, a multi-million dollar project on the site that was to include a specialty grocery store, restaurants, condominiums, town houses, office space, retail space, a hotel and even a parking garage, but the project stalled.
“We had a developer and the property under contract,” said Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins-Butler. “Then covid hit. We all know what covid did throughout this country as far as the economy.”
The city signed a contract with the Small Town Center to involve community members and learn what they’d like to see on the site, compile the information and provide preliminary drawings that make it easy to envision what might go there.
The general consensus was a desire for architectural design that’s “nothing too outlandish, nothing too different” in terms of what is already in Madison, Kemp said.
So far, a developer has yet to be named for the property that the city owns.
If plans go as expected, the city will move into its new City Hall, which will be located in the old Madison-Ridgeland School that dates to 1910, in time
to celebrate the Christmas holiday.
Converting the old school on Montgomery Street into City Hall took a little longer than expected. Construction began in March 2021.
“As we got into it, we had more and more work to do and that took us more time,” Hawkins-Butler said. “It’s a very old building that has never had any major renovations.”
The former school will house all the offices located in the current City Hall at 104 Madison Avenue, including the mayor’s office and the city clerk’s office as well as the offices for finance, planning, community development, economic development, code enforcement and public relations.
“We will have more space and it’s all laid out just perfectly,” Hawkins-Butler said.
The price tag for the City Hall project is $4 million, which is funded by $10 million in general obligation bonds. The remaining $6 million in bonds has been used for public improvements that include road repairs and park upgrades.
Hawkins-Butler has always envisioned giving the former school new life as City Hall.
“When I was first elected mayor in the 1980s, I worked very hard to put the old school and the gymnasium on the National Register of Historic Places, so the buildings would be preserved.”
The gymnasium, which is located at 2103 Main St. and is the home of the Madison Square Center for the Arts, is also included in the town square project.
An important part of the town square will be ensuring all the development under way in downtown Madison works together in a pleasing way, Kemp said.
“What you want to do is to make sure everything feels connected,” she said. “Then it’s not just an isolated site but connected to everything going on.
In 2019, The Village at Madison was announced. A restaurant opened in 2020, and several retailers have also moved there. A drive through the residential part of The Village shows new townhouses in progress.
Near the intersection of Madison Avenue and Magnolia Street is the Magnolia District, which includes nine acres. A mix of office space, retail and dining is planned and starting to come to life.
Adding a unique touch to downtown, which also includes a Baptist church, a Methodist church and even a potter, is the city-owned Montgomery House, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Plans are to use it as a special events center.
“I call that area Madison’s Central Park,” Hawkins-Butler said. “We have the beautiful gothic house with most of its furnishings. It’s something you don’t see in the metro area.”
Exactly how fast the plans for the town square move will be determined by something the city can’t control. “It all depends upon the economy,” Hawkins-Butler said.
Thompson praised the mayor and board of aldermen for the careful and deliberate growth of the city and the police department for creating a sense of safety and community.
“For the most part, the business owners know each other and look out for each other,” he said.
Gladys Dorian, who with Traci Allen co-owns Madison Marketplace at 961 Madison Ave., which sells works by local artists, jewelry, clothing and more, said additional retail in the downtown area would be beneficial. The store opened almost 10 years ago.
“It helps to have more shops,” she said. “There are so many customers with different needs and wants and that gives them more variety.”
Dorian looks forward to the opening of the new City Hall, which will be an easy walk from her store, and seeing the development of the town square.
“We can see the new City Hall, the red caboose and all of that from our store,” she said. “The house we’re located in was bult in the late 1800s. I’ve had so many customers come in and say, ‘We’d sit on the front porch of this house and watch the football games across the street because that was the school back then.’”
