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NATCHEZ, Miss. – City aldermen Monday voted down an offer to buy the old Natchez General Hospital.

 

Mayor Dan Gibson urged the Board of Aldermen to go with Ginger and James Hyland’s proposal to buy the dilapidated, vacant building adjacent to their antebellum estate, but it failed on a 3-2 vote.

 

Aldermen said the building should be put up for competitive public bidding from others – such as the developer the board previously had a controversial deal with to convert the former hospital into apartments.

 

However, the board delayed a decision Monday on seeking more propositions for the city-owned property. Alderman Sarah Carter Smith was absent from Monday’s meeting, and, based on her previous votes, would’ve favored selling the building to the Hylands. This would’ve created a 3-3 board tie for the mayor to break in favor of selling it.

 

Gibson noted residents – including the Hylands — living near the property have opposed the proposed city housing development on Oak and Myrtle streets. More than 50 residents joined in suing the city in two cases that wound up in the Mississippi Court of Appeals. The state court in 2020 threw out their appeals, but the mayor and board last November wound up nullifying the agreement with the private foundation that planned to restore the 96-year-old historic Natchez landmark building into 30 apartment units for elderly residents.

 

Gibson noted Jackson-based Magnolia Medical Foundation’s plans for the old hospital face overwhelming opposition from Natchez residents, and city officials “have no right to overstep the voices of the neighborhood.”

 

The mayor also said Magnolia has not provided him sufficient details in recent months on its plans for acquiring the old hospital and financing its redevelopment. The Board of Aldermen in 2017 did have public discussions with Magnolia head Erica Thompson about her foundation’s plans to spend $3.4 million for renovating the building. However, no public board discussions have been held about the Hylands’ plans if they buy the building or how much they’ve offered. They own The Towers, the two-century-old mansion and tourist attraction adjacent to the Natchez General Hospital property.

 

Aldermen Billie Joe Frazier and Felicia Irving noted Monday that Thompson is black and the Hylands are white. “That’s redlining,” said Irving, referring to the discriminatory practice of fencing blacks out of white neighborhoods.

 

The Hylands and others have alleged Thompson’s housing development would bring more crime to the area and lower residential property values in the northwest Natchez neighborhood.

 

Alderman Ben Davis joined Frazier and Irving in voting Monday against starting the process for selling the old hospital to the Hylands. Valencia Hall and Dan Dillard voted in favor of the sale.

 

It’s uncertain if the board will reconsider the Hylands’ offer and take another vote in July, when the mayor and aldermen hold their next scheduled meeting when Smith is expected to return. Another vote could produce a tie for the mayor to break in favor of the sale.

 

The city acquired the old hospital in 2013 after the previous owner defaulted on paying taxes. Built in 1925, it was Natchez’ main hospital until 1960.

 

NATCHEZ, Miss. –Adams County supervisors said they’re eager to rework the six-year-old joint recreation program with the Natchez mayor and aldermen as city officials embark on their own parks improvement initiative without the county.

 

However, cancelled meetings between city and county leaders have left the consolidated recreation program in limbo.

 

“Right now, there’s so much uncertainty,” said Natchez-Adams County Recreation Commission Chairman Jimmy Ware. “Someone has got to make a decision.”

 

He met with the Adams County Board of Supervisors today.

 

A joint meeting of city and county officials was called off today to discuss recreation, said Adams County board President Angela Hutchins. She said the city Board of Aldermen lacked a quorum to meet.

 

As Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson and city aldermen plan a $1.7 million upgrade of city parks, the consolidated city-county effort begun in 2015 to merge funds to improve recreation has fizzled. The Natchez-Adam County swimming pool and nearby soccer fields are all the city and county have to jointly maintain now.

 

Natchez and Adams County boards funded the construction of the swimming pool – which opened in 2018 – and jointly pay for its maintenance. Hutchins said city officials have indicated a desire to pull out of the pool deal. However, “I told them we’re not going to accept this pool on our own,” she said at today’s Board of Supervisors’ meeting.

 

Among the various unresolved questions is whether city and county officials want to continue their joint recreation commission. The nine-seat Natchez-Adams County Recreation Commission – appointed by city aldermen and county supervisors – has struggled the past couple of years to function with vacant seats along with a lack of direction and financial accounting. Today’s cancelled joint meeting of city and county officials was to review a financial report of the recreation program.

 

“We should stop playing games,” said county Supervisor Ricky Gray, who’s been pushing for a joint meeting of the county and city boards to hammer out a new recreation agreement. “You’re either for it or not for it.”

 

After declaring “we should not keep holding the Recreation Commission up,” Gray got his fellow supervisors Monday to appoint their new members: Bubba Bruce and Derrick Battiste.

 

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Adams County supervisors expressed confidence today that federal funds are coming to repave and widen Morgantown Road after years of struggling to find money to improve the dangerous, flood-prone thoroughfare.

 

A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives with $2.4 million for this has a “real good chance of getting through to the president’s desk,” said Adams County Supervisor Kevin Wilson.

 

County supervisors and Natchez officials have been told that the Morgantown Road allocation is among 1,400 federal transportation projects throughout the country itemized in legislation working its way through the U.S. House and then to the Senate.

 

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After more than a year of being closed due to COVID, the old Adams County jail will reopen for public tours. The Board of Supervisors voted today to allow tourists inside the 1891 building, which is a state-designated Mississippi Landmark. While it was converted into the county administration building four decades ago, old jail cells and the trap door for hanging inmates remain intact. The historic site has been a popular attraction for visitors in past years.

 

NATCHEZ, Miss. – Plans for turning the old Prentiss Club and City Bank   buildings into hotels are being backed by the Natchez Board of Aldermen as tax incentives are pursued to help the developers finance the new ventures.

 

The board voted Tuesday to move forward with the public-financing measures, which filmmakers Tate Taylor and John Norris are seeking to renovate the two century-old downtown landmarks on Pearl and Franklin streets. They’re also converting the old train station on Broadway into a restaurant.

 

Taylor and Norris are leasing the city-owned railroad depot and have also acquired the Prentiss Club building, which the Historic Natchez Foundation had been preserving since gutted by fire in 2018.

 

While the aldermen had already reviewed their redevelopment plans at a board meeting last week, Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson noted Tuesday that the tax incentives being sought would also be used for helping restore the old City Bank & Trust Co. bank building.

 

The mayor said plans call for the Prentiss Club and City Bank buildings being restored to become “luxury boutique hotels” and a spa.

 

All total, he said, the Taylor-Norris projects entail about $15 million in private investments for that area of town. This includes Broadway Street properties along the Mississippi River bluff — where the railroad depot and Smoot’s bar are — as well as the nearby properties on Pearl and Franklin streets.

 

“It’s going to create major jobs,” Gibson said of what’s being dubbed by city officials as the “Broadway Entertainment District.”

 

If fulfilled, the redevelopment will also bring back to life three architectural gems in need of restoration.

 

The City Bank & Trust Company building dates to 1904 and was originally a hardware store, according to Historic Natchez Foundation records. In 1926, City Bank remodeled the Franklin Street building as its new home. Its design introduced modern Neo-Classicism architecture to Natchez. The building has been mostly vacant and deteriorating since the bank moved out in the 1980s. It has since briefly housed a restaurant and been used as office and storage space.

 

Built in 1905, the Prentiss Club on Pearl Street is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was a center of Natchez social life in the early 1900s. TheItalian Renaissance-style building was severely damaged by fire in 2018 after owners Fred and Melinda Kent had just renovated it. They donated it to the Historic Natchez Foundation for it to preserve and find a new owner. Taylor and Norris acquired it in December.

 

A state-designated Mississippi landmark, the railroad depot on Broadway Street was built around 1915 by the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad. Later a restaurant and tourist-souvenir shop, it was vacated in 2013 for the city to restore its exterior in 2016. After five years of various complications, the Board of Aldermen in April finally approved leasing the city-owned building for Taylor and Norris to refurbish it and the adjacent property as a culinary and entertainment venue.

 

Natchez aldermen are backing a tax increment financing (TIF) measure for the buildings to be commercially developed. This would involve borrowing $2.5 million through a bond issue for the Taylor-Norris projects. Local property and sales tax revenues generated by the new developments would be reimbursed to their businesses to repay the loan.

 

As the mayor and aldermen support the use of this public-financing tool for a private enterprise, it will not add to the city’s debt, Gibson said.

 

“The city does not bear any risk, and the city is not (repaying) the bond,” he said.

 

While the TIF bond is for a private venture, a public hearing is required before the Board of Aldermen can give it final approval.

 

Another tax incentive being sought by Taylor and Norris is through a state tourism-development program that rebates to them the sales tax revenues generated by the new businesses.

 

While the tax breaks mean a loss of revenues for city coffers, the business ventures they help would revitalize Natchez, Gibson said. “The opportunities are amazing. This is one of the opportunities,” he said.

 

NATCHEZ, Miss. – The Historic Natchez Foundation’s transfer of the old Ritz theater to new owners raises hopes the landmark will be restored to bring more commercial life to downtown Natchez.

 

“HNF nursed the ruins of The Ritz for over 18 years and never lost hope that our city’s grandest example of Art Deco architecture would one day be restored,” executive director Carter Burns said in announcing that Steve Campo and Mamie Henry acquired the 86-year-year Commerce Street building last week.

 

While the structure is severely dilapidated behind the rainbow-colored movie-theater marquee and façade with neon lights, the developersplan to restore and convert it into a marketplace for various vendors of food and other items.

 

“HNF is excited about the future of The Ritz, and we look forward to working with the new owners,” said HNF President Mac Hazlip.

 

The Ritz opened in 1935 and ceased showing movies around 1970, according to HNF. It was one of at least four movie houses in downtown Natchez during its heyday: The Baker Grand on Pearl Street, The Clarke on Main Street and The Star on Franklin Street.

 

The Historic Natchez Foundation acquired The Ritz in 2002 and has since been trying to preserve it and find someone with the wherewithal to rehabilitate the building into viable commercial space. Campo and Henry offered the most viable proposition, according to HNF. The New Orleans-area residents also separately acquired adjoining downtown property that extends north from The Ritz and wraps around the corner of Franklin and Commerce Streets.

 

“The proposal for The Ritz was particularly timely for HNF as we were on the verge of having to undertake major restoration work on The Ritz without a plan for the building’s use and at a time when we are still financially recovering from our investment in the preservation of the fire-damaged Prentiss Club,” Hazlip said.

 

Both The Ritz and Prentiss Club were donated to HNF by previous owners entrusting the foundation to preserve the historic buildings and find new owners.

 

HNF in December deeded the Prentiss Club on Pearl Street to filmmakers Tate Taylor and John Norris, Burns said. HNF has been preserving it since gutted by fire in 2018. Built in 1905, the Prentiss Club is considered one of the city’s two “most architecturally sophisticated and finely finished 20^thCentury buildings,” according to HNF. The other is the Temple B’nai Israel Jewish synagogue.

 

Taylor and Norris are seeking tax breaks from the city and state as they pursue their commercial venture for the Prentiss Club, which in the early 1900s was a center of Natchez social life with the city’s grandest ballroom, according to historical accounts.

 

Historic preservation tax credits are also available for The Ritz’ rehabilitation. After it ceased operating as a movie theater about 50 years ago, it was used only for storage until about 2000, when the entire roof structure collapsed, according to the Historic Natchez Foundation. After its acquisition two years later, HNF spent months cleaning out the debris and salvaging move-theater relics — including the metal end-panels of rotted wood seats, light fixtures, movie reels, rolls of tickets and other memorabilia.

 

NATCHEZ, Miss. – The city’s architectural review board on Wednesday saw plans Viking has for its riverboat dock being built in Natchez on the Mississippi River.

 

While the  Natchez Preservation Commission approved the floating dock’s initial conceptual design, final approval is contingent on it also being OKed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

 

The dock — to be located at the end of Silver Street by the current boat ramp — is in the design phase as Viking prepares  to begin cruising the Mississippi River next year to bring tourists to Natchez.

 

The dock will be large enough to berth the 386-passenger Viking Mississippi cruise ship but should “be as unobtrusive as possible,” said Natchez Planning Director Rico Giani.

 

The Natchez Board of Aldermen last month approved leases with Viking Cruises and American Cruise Lines for them to use the city-owned property for their docks. The companies at their expense will build separate landings for their riverboats. The two docking facilities will 100 feet apart near where the Isle of Capri floating casino was formerly berthed.

 

In addition to revenues generated by the leases, the city is getting $500,000 from ACL and Viking to help build an elevated street where the river frequently floods Natchez Under-the-Hill. ACL and Viking are putting up $250,000 each.

 

With the inclusion of the American Queen Steamboat Co. — which plans to build a third Silver Street dock — riverboats visiting Natchez by autumn 2022 are projected to bring up to 2,000 passengers a week to tour Natchez, according to Mayor Dan Gibson.

 

After a year of no river cruises because of the COVID pandemic, ACL and AQSC resumed their Natchez visits in March. Viking plans to inaugurate its Mississippi River cruises in August 2022.

 

Viking  is building similar riverboat docking facilities at Vicksburg, St. Francisville, La., and the Houmas House near New Orleans.

 

Gibson has said the ACL dock will be open to the general public for viewing the river and sunsets but not for fishing. American Queen plans to dock its boats by the ramp in front of The Camp restaurant and Under-the-Hill Saloon.

 

In other action Wednesday, the Natchez Preservation Commission approved the placement of telescopic viewers along the Natchez bluff trail overlooking the Mississippi River on Broadway Street. They’re being donated by the Rotary Club of Natchez.

 

The commission regulates the design, restoration and construction of buildings and fixtures in Natchez’ historic districts to ensure they’re architecturally appropriate.

 

NATCHEZ, Miss. – The city is expected to have $2 million in hand by August as it starts improving Natchez’ six municipal parks, with the bulk of that money going to renovate the Duncan Park golf clubhouse and the North Natchez youth center.

 

“It will take a few months and even into next year. But the important thing is we’re starting,” Mayor Dan Gibson said of the parks project.

 

The Board of Aldermen agreed Tuesday to move forward on borrowing $2 million through bonds. While the list of park improvements has a projected cost of about $1.75 million, aldermen decided to add another $250,000 for city street resurfacing and other structural repairs.

 

Improving city parks has been a high priority for Gibson since he took office in July. The mayor said the city can handle the additional debt load and will not need to increase taxes for this.

 

The list of park projects includes spending $500,000 for restoring the deteriorating Duncan Park Golf Course clubhouse and $365,000 for the dilapidated North Natchez youth center. New tennis courts, playground equipment and splash pads are also among the recreational offerings to be in the works. Gibson said park restroom improvements are already beginning.

 

While not a city park, the Natchez National Historical Park is listed as a high priority by the Biden administration for $540,000 to preserve and develop the Forks of the Road, the site of a former Natchez slave market. The U.S Department of the Interior announced Monday that it wants Congress to allocate the funds as part of national parks’ “initiatives that advance racial equity and tell the stories of historically underrepresented communities and the struggle for civil rights.”

 

Natchez officials have scheduled a June 18 ceremony to mark the donation of nearly three acres of city-owned land for the National Park Service to make part of the Forks of the Road historic site by St. Catherine Street. Gibson said U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker is expected to be there.

 

Gibson also said $2 million has been earmarked for Morgantown Road in proposed legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. Natchez and Adams County leaders have been seeking funds to upgrade the road that’s considered dangerous and prone to rain-caused flooding.

 

Funds for Forks of the Road and Morgantown Road must pass through the congressional appropriations process in the coming months before the federal government can actually provide the money.

NATCHEZ, Miss. – City aldermen are being asked to approve tax incentives for developers planning to restore the old Prentiss Club building and the former Broadway Street train depot.

 

The Natchez Board of Aldermen and Mayor Dan Gibson on Tuesday heard the request for adopting the public-financing package for renovating the two century-old landmarks. The plan also involves further developing three other properties on north Broadway Street: the bluff area adjacent to the depot, Smoot’s bar and a small structure next to the bar.

 

The tax incentives “would really go a long way to jumpstart and facilitate the building out of this project,” said Chris Gouras, a financial consultant representing filmmaker Tate Taylor.

 

Taylor and and partner John Norris are leasing the city-owned former railroad station with plans to make it a restaurant. They’ve also acquired the Prentiss Club building, which the Historic Natchez Foundation has been preserving since gutted by fire in 2018.

 

Taylor and Norris also operate the Crooked Letter movie studio, Smoot’s and The Little Easy eatery – all integral parts of the Broadway Street entertainment district city leaders have been trying for years to develop on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi River.

 

In asking the mayor and aldermen Tuesday to support the tax inducements, Gouras said they’re key financial elements for the Broadway Street area’s redevelopment and the old Prentiss Club’s renovation. He said the historic Pearl Street building could be converted into a hotel, but no final decision has been made yet for its use, said attorney Scott Slover, who represents Taylor and Norris.

 

While aldermen indicated Tuesday they favor the tax incentives, they put off a decision so they can further review the details, which involve local taxes owed by the entrepreneurs being redirected to help pay for their development projects.

 

“Our clients are ready to start construction,” said Gouras, who noted the enterprise entails about $15 million in private investment.

 

With the developers facing an October deadline to renovate and open the old railroad depot, Gibson indicated aldermen must decide soon on approving the tax incentives.

 

“We definitely want to move very quickly with this,” the mayor said. “We, as a city, don’t want to be a party to that delay.”

 

A state-designated Mississippi landmark, the former passenger-train station was built around 1912 by the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad. Later a restaurant and tourist-souvenir shop, it was vacated in 2013 for the city to restore its exterior in 2016. After five years of various complications and delays, the city board in April finally approved the lease for Taylor and Norris to make it and the adjacent property a culinary and entertainment venue.

 

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Prentiss Club building was severely damaged by fire in 2018 after owners Fred and Melinda Kent renovated it. The Kents donated the building to the Historic Natchez Foundation for it to preserve and find a new owner. Built in 1905, it’s one of the city’s two “most architecturally sophisticated and finely finished 20^thCentury buildings,” according to the HNF. (The other is the Temple B’nai Israel Jewish synagogue.)

 

The Board of Aldermen is being asked to back a tax increment financing (TIF) measure. This would have the city borrowing up to $2.5 million through a bond issue for the project. The debt would be repaid with property and sales tax revenues the new business developments generate.

 

A public hearing is required for such TIF measures before the Board of Aldermen can approve it.

 

The tax-incentive package also includes a rebate measure that sends tourism tax revenues generated by restaurants and hotels back to the businesses.

 

NATCHEZ, Miss. – Another round of ice-storm debris pickup for Natchez residents should begin as soon as contracts are finalized for doing the needed work.

 

City aldermen earlier this month agreed to retain Looks Great Services, the debris-removal contractor that did the initial gathering of  fallen limbs and trees after February’s ice storm.

 

A separate debris-monitoring company is being contracted to keep track of what’s being hauled away. This is to ensure the city gets reimbursed by federal disaster-relief funds Natchez is to receive for the recovery costs, said Mayor Dan Gibson. He said Tuesday the debris-monitoring contract has not yet been finalized.

 

With Looks Great Services being hired, the Columbia-based storm-recovery specialist will resume collecting woody debris as it did on a short-term basis soon after the Feb. 17 ice storm broke trees throughout the city. The first round was through an emergency contract with the city. The new contract has LGS also being on call to quickly respond to future storm cleanups. This will ensure the city will “have someone ready to move in and mobilize within 24 hours,” said Natchez Public Works head Justin Dollar.

 

City residents are being asked to have their leftover ice-storm rubbish piled along city streetsides to be hauled away. There are no size limitations. People can telephone the Natchez Public Works Department – 601 445-6652 – to be put on a list for Looks Great Services to tend to.

 

The Public Works Department is short-staffed and ill-equipped for such heavy work, and its manpower shortage has worsened to the point it’s struggling to keep grass cut and plants watered.

 

“Our Public Works crew is down a lot of positions….It is a challenge,” Gibson said. He also noted the city doesn’t have the number of jail inmates it used to have to help do outdoor tasks.

 

NATCHEZ, Miss. – City aldermen waived their right to purchase the old Britton & Koontz bank building, paving the way for new buyers to pursue their plans to renovate the Natchez landmark into a restaurant and bar.

 

Meeting Tuesday with the Natchez Board of Aldermen, Marty Buckman outlined his plans for the Main Street building, which has a provision attached that the city can offer to buy it whenever up for sale.

 

The privately owned building was formerly used by the city as a welcome center, and Natchez officials going back to 1994 have retained a “right-of-first-refusal” clause, according to Buckman and attorney Walter Brown. With city aldermen uninterested in acquiring the building, they voted Tuesday to give up rights to bid on it.

 

The building – constructed in 1833 as a financial institution – housed Britton & Koontz bank until it moved across the street in the 1980s to what’s now Home Bank.

 

Buckman – who noted he grew up in Brookhaven but has family roots in Natchez where he now lives – said he, his wife and son plan to convert the old bank into a restaurant and bar. He said they’re working closely with the Historic Natchez Foundation in restoring the building. It housed in recent years Receivable Solutions Specialists, a debt-collection company.

 

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The Board of Aldermen began the process Tuesday for Natchez to borrow $1.75 million to upgrade its six parks with a renovated golf course clubhouse and youth center along with new playground equipment, tennis courts, splash pad and other recreational offerings.

 

With this “recreation renewal” being pushed by Mayor Dan Gibson as a high priority since he took office in July, the board now has a concrete list to consider of what should be done for the parks. It includes spending $500,000 for restoring the deteriorated Duncan Park Golf Course clubhouse, $365,000 for the dilapidated North Natchez youth center and $82,000 each for new playground equipment at Duncan Park and North Natchez. Building a splash pad at Duncan Park and repairing the one at North Natchez is also on the list.

 

Aldermen on Tuesday began the process for borrowing the $1.75 million through a bond issue. They voted to hire a Jackson law firm to draw up documents for this.

 

With tax collections and other revenues coming into Natchez at a good clip, Gibson said, the city will be able to afford the estimated $110,000-a-year debt the city would have to pay to bond investors for 20 years. “The city is in good financial shape to do this,” the mayor said.