Downtown staging a comeback (Jackson)

[Rural King]

Downtown staging a comeback - Jackson taking proposals for entertainment district meant to lure people into downtown

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You can read about it here:

http://miva.jacksonsun.com/miva/cgi-bin/mi...200507247264660

The Jackson Sun - Jackson, TN

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Well things are moving right along now it seems. Satalac brought this article to my attention and I thought others might be interested. Jackson has some major catching up to do, its way behind its peer Paducah, KY, and falling behind its other peer Cape Girardeau (Mo) who is now doing alot to revitalize its downtown, so its good to here the city is getting in gear to revotalize downtown.

[satalac]

it's great seeing urban renewal in even the smaller cities. it brings a sense of pride back into cities that had kind of lost their soul and history. thanks for posting this rural king!

[Rural King]

Hey here is some more detailed news on the the large phase one redevelopement plan for downtown Jackson. This sounds awesome IMO. A multi-screen theatre and a host of retail and dining to go along with it. The idea of potentially 750K more consumers a year downtown gets my head spinning on all the potential growth that could spur.

Article Link:

http://miva.jacksonsun.com/miva/cgi-bin/mi...200507287415901

The Jackson Sun

[satalac]

The idea of potentially 750K more consumers a year downtown gets my head spinning on all the potential growth that could spur.

wow, that would be awesome for downtown.

[Rural King]

The city council of Jackson is going to wait to take further action on preparing for the go-ahead of the downtown cinema project/proposal. The city is going to wait until a second environmental project is complete until they take action, despite the first environmental study showing no issues. It also sounds like the city might want to make counter-proposals in regards to how certian aspects of the project are carried out.

There is a a great rendering in a new article on the Jackson Sun website that covers the city's delay:

http://miva.jacksonsun.com/miva/cgi-bin/mi...200508037433180

The rendering is really classy IMO. I really hope the theatre ends up looking like that.

[sleepy]

A US District Court judge is one of the investors. Environmental problems? Nah, it's a go. lol

Seriously, it looks nice.

What else does downtown Jackson have in terms of restaurants, clubs, etc.?

[Rural King]

Its got a few bars, a restuarant or two, the Bluegrass Museum, a few specialty shops....umm a gas station. LOL Actually not alot rea for the city's size.

There are several of federal, state, and local government office buildings, and a impressive number of buildings, ie courthouses, revolving around all three levels the judicial system.

There is also the Carl Perkins Center and the Ned McWherter Center (the "Ned") which are the only real draws downtown for most folks.

Oh and that classy old school Greyhound station straight out of 1950.

There

[sleepy]

Does innercity Jackson have any sort of old area that could be turned into a club district, something like the planned Pharrish St. in Jackson MS, Beale in Memphis, etc.? Any old warehouse area downtown that could be turned into lofts?

[Rural King]

Not really IMO. Downtown has been cleared out south of downtown pretty good, and the other sides are pretty old-school residential. The westside is industrial, but its kind of more like old one story mill facilities and old tin structures, with no real warehouse features that could be used that I kow of. There might be some stuff over in that industrial side that could be used that I don't know of off hand, I have never ventured over there, but coming in on US 45 By-pass nothing stands out.

Now there are plenty of two and three story commerical buildings that could be put to good or better use.

The old residential areas around downtown are awesome, esp. the area on and off of US 45 proper coming into downtown.

[Rural King]

The downtown entertainment district proposed by the city has hit a major snag as the state has temporarily refused to authorize a needed environmental permit (an Indvidual Aquatic Resource Alteration permit) to alter a section of Central Creek that runs downtown through the middle of the proposed district. A section of the creek that runs through the middle of the 17-acre site the city bought recently for 2-millon dollars needs to be piped and covered in order for private developers to buy the land from the city to for proposed retail developments, which include plans for restuarants, retail establishements, and a 17-screen theatre.

The city apparently did not justify to the state the need for the permit or why it wanted it sufficiently. This fact may delay start of the project, which was slated to begin later this year.

Source: Jackson Sun:

http://www.jacksonsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...311/1002/NEWS17

[Clobber]

that's unfortunate. Do you think it's a matter of the people proposing it not being savvy enough to provide the right language? Or a bias against W. Tenn? Or just did not meet muster to justify legislative support?

I guess I'm wondering whether the state has funded projects elsewhere that are arguably on the same level of justification, or maybe even less justified.

[Rural King]

I honestly don't know. Its very unclear from the article what the issue was. It was just stated that it probably had to do with the paperwork submitted not being adequate to satisfy the needs of TDEC to approve an ARA permit.

I don't think any form of bias played a factor, rather if I had to guess the city probably submitted a request package they thought was adequate to get what would be assumed to be a simple permit, only to find out that TDEC wanted more details about the project's scope and impact then they had provided.

[Rural King]

Things are looking even worse for the proposed downtown entertainment district. The city has stopped talking to the state about obtaining the needed environment permit for the 16 million dollar project. City officials have stated that discussions with the state lead them to belive the state would be unlikely to approve a permit to pipe and cover the Central Creek for the project, so there was no need to continue them. That leaves the potential developers the options of pursuing the permit on their own, creating a new plan with the creek left open (minus 110K square feet of development lost due to that fact), or drop the project.

Read more in-depth about the entertainment districts woes here in this Jackson Sun article:

http://www.jacksonsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar.../604260308/1002

[roads-scholar]

When I visited Jackson this weekend it was the first time I had been to the city in eight years. I was delighted to see all the commercial development but pleasantly surprised at the look and feel of Jackson's small downtown. A lot more has to be done to bring folks downtown but things have definitely improved. My congratulations go out to the great people of Jackson!

[Rural King]

The downtown entertainment district proposal is now dead. Issues with obtaining an environmental permit finally killed the project according to what I read in the Jackson Sun not long ago. Really sad that such a promising project for Jackson's downtown died over obtaining a permit to cover a creek in struggling downtown of all places.