Jackson Jambalaya

So what message does this send to the new Westin Hotel?

All you have to do is look at what New Orleans is proposing for their convention center, almost a Billion dollars with an adjoining hotel. The backlash is, that it's not needed. Convention business is down all over the country. I had two trades shows last year in New Orleans and both said that they were not going to do shows in the future, period. Too much money, too little gained.
New Orleans is a know tourist destination, and their conventions have declined steadily ever since Katrina. But the fact remains that this is true all over the country. Our convention center has never even come close to breaking even and yet the powers that be think that someone is going to invest millions to bill a mega center across from our white elephant.

Mo money, Mo money.....

I can save them some money.

Hotel = RedTop Inn

Shopping = Walmart

Restaurants = Burger King, Krystal, and (questionable support from WH corporate) Waffle House

Oh and include a NASCAR track and a Pro baseball stadium.

"The Jackson hotel market without public participation can not support the development of a full-service hotel at this time. However, there is demand to justify a new convention headquarter hotel which would induce new demand to the market."

Total and complete bullshit.

Bend over Jackson taxpayers, they want to do you again.

Lost count how many times we were told that downtown residential had waiting lists a mile long. This study appears to indicate otherwise.

just connect this to Farish Street and it will be a real dandy of a development

I'm sure the Westin folks put a call into the mayor's office to ask about this.

I thought the Westin was going to be the panacea for the lodging issues in downtown.

So now we have the Westin, the HGI, and the Marriott, but we need another one to really get those big national conventions!

The NEXT GIG is gonna be DYNAMITE!

Ben Allen, president of Downtown Jackson Partners, said at the press conference that he has seen figures showing that, with all the residential development downtown in the form of loft apartments and condos, that in 10 years there could be as many as 25,000 people living downtown, tripling traffic on Pearl Street and Pascagoula Street.

-- Mississippi Business Journal
-- March 3, 2008

While I agree that downtown has a massive demand for high-end condos and a waiting list. I will say that the private sector needs to do the development. Not government. The westin is a huge hit. Let's not not city involved. I'm also opposed to city funded stadiums etc...

10:04
That they need to pony up to the Mayor's re-election committee.

Caught it - can’t support a hotel at this time and the “ however” - what kind of backwards logic is that? Jackson can not even guarantee a reliable water supply and damn sure can’t tell conventioneers they will be safe. I know for a fact that one of the largest companies in America visited to consider holding a shareholders meeting in Jackson. Their Hotel was without water and they were frightened by the gas stations on 55 having to have cop cars with their lights on at each one. Their meeting with city officials was less than impressive. In fact, they described it as mediocre.

Westin is actually doing well according to everybody who knows anything about it.

This new proposal all comes down to how much money a private developer is willing to put in. If a private entity wants to put up the majority of the money, great.

Unreported, at least here on JJ, is that Mayor Yammeralot wants to carve out of portion of the 1% infrastructure sales tax and go deep on $30 MILLION in long term bonds now specifically to pave roads.

Though it was only a few short years ago when his father said using bonds to pave roads was stupid since the debt would far outlive the shelf life of the paving.

Westin 68%
King Edward 70%
Marriot (oh 40+ years old) 44%

Where is the demand needed?

19k work downtown. 500 live downtown. Wow.

Slap some paint on the Sun and Sand and bring that jewel back.

Don't forget a gun store. The naive out-of-town/state visitors will soon realize that they need an equalizer or two.

Did everyone miss the 10MM the owners of the Westin asked the state put into a bond bill for a parking garage? The Hote is running under 50% oc rate.

"If you build it they will come" has no reliable track record in Jackson. Yet that is the only mindset a financially able investor can have to justify risking money in this market. There are no trends indicating a real demand for any of the phases of development dreamed of here. All you are likely to get at this time are a few broke ass hustlers who see a chance to move some public funds to their pockets and run for Atlanta when the project fizzles.

@Cynical Sam

There was a downtown gun store called Downrange Sporting Goods. They advertised on WYAB for a long time. I'm not 100% certain if they are still open.

The hotel equation is plain and simple. Open one, close one. Marriott, King Edward, and Westin take note.

What a con game this will be but maybe it is too last since all the real money has already been stolen. Poor people paying property taxes will have their last last dollar taken from them.

While I applaud the desire to improve the downtown area, I can't help but wonder where the business case is for this concept. Who specifically wants to hold conventions in Jackson, and is promising enough potential patronage to require more hotel rooms and eateries than we already have? "If you build it, they will come" typically only works in the movies.

If I'm not mistaken, this is round 2 of the RFP process. The City issued a RFP in 2018 for the 7.75 acres, but they didn't get any traction.

Yawn...................

Have I missed something? Did a hurricane hit Destin, FL? That's where everybody goes for a convention. Nobody holds a convention other than in Destin unless a casino is involved. Nobody.

Lots of comments from people who have no idea whether or not these hotels are profitable or not. Just type a comment and too many folks on here take it as gospel as long as it is anti-Jackson.

I don't see the need for another hotel, but I'm not going to come on here and act like a hotel expert on top of being a political pundit, forensic accountant, football expert and all the other things that people pose as on here. Most JJ posters are all of these things in their head.

1:30 The mayor and his minions are also none of those things, but they get to make decisions affecting the lives and pockets of others. That is at least worthy of comment, even if the comments aren't "professional".

The new Sheraton and convention center being built off Airport Road will be far more attractive than anything in downtown Jackson. There are reportedly other retail and restaurant businesses who will also build there. This is at the old Refuge Golf Club.

Motel 6 and Super 8 are the finalists.

1:30pm....I am in the hotel game, wisely not in Jackson, but I know the market well. The above naysayers are speaking the gospel. Start singing it loud like the others, and you will be on the right side of reality.

@205 - spot on. This is a regional meeting locale...not a national convention destination. Geez! Delusion of grandeur comes to mind. Nashville, New Orleans, Memphis and Biloxi are all more attractive in that order. Just accept what we are and focus on the needs, i.e. infrastructure, roads, public education, water/sewer billing, crime, and most of all conflict dispute resolution courses. Maybe we can hold a national convention on those subjects so attendees can see how not to be? I’m sure would be well attended.

This kind of live, work, play, eat, and shop, all within walking distance of your loft apt/condo worked in Austin, Texas. Jackson is not Austin.

Meanwhile, across the street, the old Walthall Hotel just sits empty and decaying. You'd think city hall would be more interested in sprucing that place up than they would adding more poop to the pile.

Obviously a hotel would make zero difference.

But it got me thinking about all of Jackson's totally unsolvable problems, and a new one occurred to me.

Jackson is so sprawling for a mid-size city that you REALLY have to mean to go downtown to get anywhere close to it.

It's not like there is a large, thriving suburb five minutes down the road, and they might pop into a downtown restaurant for dinner if it's safe. Instead you have miles and miles of endless, decaying Jackson suburbs in every direction before you cross the county/city line and hit any place where consumers with money might live.

Don't know why this just occurred to me. Add it to the pile of reasons Jackson is doomed, I guess.

Why are there so many hotels going up all over the metro? Clinton to Flowood, maybe even Brandon too. I can't believe there is all that demand.

@2:54 well the decaying Walthall you speak of is currently being redeveloped into over 100 apartments... try again

Bonds and large contracts have loads of graft and payoffs. This is all about making money.

"Meanwhile, across the street, the old Walthall Hotel just sits empty and decaying. You'd think city hall would be more interested in sprucing that place up than they would adding more poop to the pile."

In late 2017, JFP reported that the Walthall Hotel was being renovated and converted to apartments.

3:38 it’s 10 min from Renaissance to Downtown
That’s just a dumb statement
I work at the Iron Horse and I know we did almost 110k in sales in the last week. That’s in the worst part of Downtown too
Crime isn’t an issue but it’s gonna take more development to change that perception.

1:30pm What hotels do you own?

The Walthall is being renovated as we speak. Not much has been done the facade but if you look at the back of the building there is much being done.

The video makes a better argument for increasing residential development (and the other elements like infrastructure, safety and proximity to work/play spaces that would encourage it). It doesn't make the case for another hotel or convention center.

All the bullshit aside...will someone please enlighten us as to which groups, what kinds of people, what organizations, who, when where and why anybody would/will plan to have a convention in downtown Jackson, Mississippi. Seriously.

Just tell us who. I remember years ago Harvey and Frank promised that groups of black conventioneers would be coming to town. But, did they? Nope. Will throngs of Chicagoans or groups from Detroit be holding conventions here, just to be near the civil rights museum?

It's plumb damned dumb to be thinking about building jackson venues when there are zero groups even giving a remote thought to coming to this city.

The Sheraton - across from the Airport, on a golf course, in SAFE Flowood - is going to decimate the existing Jackson Convention Center activity! Bye bye JCC! Why in the world would a private developer go it alone or partner with the City of Jackson to build another hotel when there will be no reason for anyone to stay there?

The Walthall will be done right after the old Eastland courthouse. Remember all the announcements about converting the courthouse to apartments? Work started, then nothing for years. I'm sure the Walthall is going to have the same fate, if only because the building is crap ugly.

I agree with 11:22 about the sun & sand

" It's not like there is a large, thriving suburb five minutes down the road, and they might pop into a downtown restaurant for dinner if it's safe. Instead you have miles and miles of endless, decaying Jackson suburbs in every direction before you cross the county/city line and hit any place where consumers with money might live."
March 29, 2019 at 3:38 PM

So VERY true! Excellent observation...

1:07, it is.

Mukesh Kumar said they rejected the bids from the original RFP because the city didn’t like what was being proposed. This RFP is essentially the same as the original except the developer will have the opportunity to buy the actual property from JRA instead of the ol’ “lease it from us” mentality that pissed off other would-be developers for years. Glad the city actually isn’t afraid to sell its property for a chance at quality development this time around.

I am 52, lived in Jackson my whole life, and am it’s biggest cheerleader. The growth downtown is real, but slow. It must grow organically. It does not support any hotel that wouldn’t be built there without incentives. It might just happen: look at Birmingham and Memphis... their downtowns attract the youth. But let’s not oversell it.

In the words of one of my college professors, “You’re late!”

Yeah, only Madison is five minutes down the interstate.

5:40's post is so riddled with nonsense I don't know where to begin. So I won't.

Since James O. Eastland was arguably one of the most prolific racists of the past 100 years, how is it that his name remains on a building, albeit a federal one, in the middle of Jacktown?

You people are protesting a heritage flag that contains an image 160 years old while ignoring things right at the end of your noses. Can that building actually be seen from The Civil Rights Museum with a good periscope? Where's the protest?

11:27 can't wait to rename buildings and streets, take down/change the flag... with their long-term thoughts of renaming Mississippi and the big one - renaming the bad ol' U.S.

I don't know the particulars of this situation, but if I were really interested in those particulars, I'd look into EB-5 visas involved in any investing into hotels in downtown Jackson. Might want to look into the issues with EB-5s and hotels in general.