Wednesday, July 10, 2024

D.A. Assembled Team for Convention Center Hotel "Bid"

Slick sketches and resumes were submitted to the city of Jackson by Facilities Solution Team in response to Jackson's request for a statement of qualifications for a Convention Center hotel.  Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens and Sherik Smith are partners in the company.  Two other companies submitted SOQ's as well.    

Facilities Solution Team's Convention Center Hotel Rendering
The Jackson Redevelopment Authority issued a request for proposals for the Convention Center hotel project in September 2023 but later withdrew the RFP. The city issued a request for qualifications for the project on January 31, 2024.

JJ submitted a public records request for a list of all companies responding to the RFQ. The records provided stated Speed Commercial Real Estate, 2K Development LLC, and Facility Solutions Team submitted responses to the RFQ.  Posted below are the responses from 2k,  Facility Solutions, and Speed.    

Facilities Solutions Team submitted its statement of qualifications on March 10.  Responses were due by March 12.  2K did not submit a response until April 16.  

Facilities Solution Team is owned by Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens.  Facility's partners are Sherik Marve Smith and Contour Companies.  The submission states Facilities and Contour are working together as the Jackson Development Group. 




The Contour Companies are real estate developers in Michigan. Company website.  The submission states Pete Dedvukaj is the CEO of Contour Development and Chris Lancaster (p. 19) will be the project manager.  (p.8) 

Sherik Smith is a managing partner for insurance company Penn Global Marketing.  He is a graduate of The Jackson State University and is listed as an associated local businessman in the submission.  (p.23)



Posted below are several examples of Contour's work. 


2K Developments, LLC submitted a statement of qualifications as well.  2K's submission states the company will partner with New Orleans general contractor Doucette, Inc.  Kassam Began is the CEO of 2K.  


Last but not least was local developer Speed Real Estate.  Jeff Speed owns the company.  He submitted a no-frills proposal that provided his background as well as a list of projects and clients.  No fluff or corporate buzzwords plagued his submission as they did the other two statements of qualifications.  

Kingfish note: Will the city score these statements of qualifications?  What is the process for awarding the contract if no actual bids are accepted? Will the city issue a request for bids? Inquiring minds want to know. 


33 comments:

Anonymous said...

They failed to include the bombed out parking lot in the sketches.

Anonymous said...

Is there evidence Contour has actually completed any of their projects? A few of them I actually couldn't find the given address. On others what is there doesn't look like anything you'd want to brag about.

Anonymous said...

Apparently there's too much hotel space downtown now.

Sleuthing Past Projects Submitted said...

Neither one of "The American Spinning Mill" or "The Northland City Center" has even been started yet as it looks like via Google Earth's latest street views.

My guess is this is a set-up" for another money-laundering type of fraud. Our city leaders BETTER BE DOING SOME REAL DUE DILIGENCE or they could be looking at some future prison life, IMO!

Anonymous said...

This project never happens without enormous matching funds from some governmental entity. Which means, it never happens. No capitalist would 100% fund this.

Anonymous said...

Attended a meeting at the Convention Complex this week. Street lights in the area were not working, roads were torn up (from waterline repairs, I guess) and the shrubs and planters in front of the complex were overgrown with weeds. It looked like people have given up on the place.

Anonymous said...

Another in a long line of Jackson schemes that will not and cannot pan out on its own, but allows the crooks to wet their beaks.

Anonymous said...

Their next project may be in a prison

Anonymous said...

If there is a demand for a new hotel and there is money to be made private developers would be lining up to build it using their own money. Truth is the convention center is rarely used except for local smaller events. There are no companies doing conventions in Jackson. If I’m wrong please correct me. This appears to be planned to have the city pay for it and the developers make their money on the front end. Hopefully this scheme is part of what the FBI was investigating when the search warrants were served on the DA and city hall.

Anonymous said...

But is it Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive? Remember that Chowke demands that he only be surrounded by people of the same culture. Right?

Anonymous said...

I can’t imagine any legitimate investors being interested in this location. They aren’t going to approve anything that is submitted by whites. The last hotel Lumbas cronies built, closed shop within 24 months. It was so bad, Sleep inn would renew the franchise rights.

Anonymous said...

Last year, I toured Europe. We traveled through numerous World War 2 bomb sites. Had we not been told, we would not have known that. They gathered together and repaired those sites. When are the heathens currently destroying the “Capitol city” going to make attempts to repair the city’s blight and destruction? I am serious when I ask this, Why would anyone go to Jackson other than to a hospital, and they are moving to Madison county as quickly as they can build new clinics and hospitals.

Anonymous said...



When the indictments are unsealed this will be shut down—

Anonymous said...

Oops...They did it again!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Harvey and you dopes in Jackson. I made mine.

- C.H. Johnson







AND he's still duping unsuspecting cities in America.

Anonymous said...

If a hotel next to the convention center makes sense, why didn't developers of the Westin build it there instead where it is now?

Anonymous said...

what is the elected district attorney of hinds county doing running a real estate side hustle ???????

and several other side hustles as well....cigars, bars and daiquiris come to mind.

please, someone explain this to my cotton- chopping peasant self.

Anonymous said...

It is nice knowing that safe, pristine, downtown Jackson has hotel, after hotel, after hotel, and needs to build another downtown hotel. I am sure local (when I say local, I don’t mean Jackson people) people will line up to finance this.

Anonymous said...

KF - "inquiring minds want to know"?? Yes, I know you are playing the game, but lets get to it.

Why did the Mayor (uhh, excuse me, the City) change from a RFP to a RFQ at the last minute? That's what inquiring minds want to know - and maybe what inquiring bodies have been looking into recently.

Our DA as a hotel developer? Imagine that. What background, experience, or maybe 'deal-making-influence-groups' does our DA bring to this table. Yes, I understand that he has had a group of 'investors' wanting to meet with the city to talk about how to do work with the city, but does that fit somehow into a RFP ---oh, forgive me --- does that somehow fit into a RFQ where details are not required?

Yes, inquiring minds want to know. Hopefully soon we will find out.


Anonymous said...

They have let that place go. The wood around the windows is literally rotting. The last time we were forced to hold an event there they had a single bathroom open for men and women, the roof was leaking, and it was hot. Not to mention multiple vehicles were broken into. Thankfully they have moved the rest of our events to the trademart.

Anonymous said...

How much for The Big Guy (Jackson’s version)?

Anonymous said...

Maybe Jackson can debunk the theory that you can’t spend your way out of debt. It has been tried thousands of times and has never worked, but maybe this time will be different with this mayor and city council.

Steve said...

6:20

No harm in trying, especially when it’s not your money to begin with.

Anonymous said...

I ask this question all the time, it either doesn't get posted, or no one answers it. Can anyone name one (1) thing that Democrats built in MS that is profitable, maintained properly and no grift was involved in the process? I'll wait....

On the other hand, lets look at all of the things they have been given and look at the condition of those things.

Anonymous said...

I actually did not know it was the job of the district attorney to facilitate the expansion of overpriced, unneeded monuments in a city hemorraging money and losing an average of 5 people a day.

Anonymous said...

Grifters will grift. Right Jody, Chowke?

Anonymous said...

10:14 if what you say is true about rotting wood around the windows, why was a commercial building allowed to use wood around windows? That is not up to commercial code in any municipality.

Anonymous said...

Wow. I had no idea the Marriott and Westin were frequently sold out of rooms.

Kingfish said...

Marriott closed for quite some time. JSU is converting the building to dorms for upper level students. Legislature approved it in last session.

Anonymous said...

If anyone is curious about why hotel "deals" that seem to make no financial sense, often involving people who have no hotel experience or the financial gravitas to do such deals without OPM, and often in seemingly "odd" areas, pop up frequently, do some research into "E"/"treaty investment" visas, such as E2 and EB5. No, they aren't "scams," but the jobs creation aspect of them is almost always pure bullshit. Maybe other states could offer such "visas" to Mississippi folks as a way to get their money out of here.

Anonymous said...

July 11, 2024 at 9:38 AM
It's a visa scam for Indians because they routinely get shut down trying any other visa.

Anonymous said...

All I want to know is whether a grand jury has been convened, whether the charges will be under the RICO statute, and when we can expect the indictments.

Anonymous said...

"It's a visa scam for Indians because they routinely get shut down trying any other visa."

Please explain how it is a "scam" by an applicant from any treaty country to simply meet the requirements set out, money-wise. Or, if the "investment" project's failure to produce the jobs the promoter claimed makes it a "scam," please explain how other projects funded through domestic sources and also claiming ridiculous jobs-creation and economic impact numbers are NOT "scams."

For any still reading along, any direct "scam-ish" aspect of these things is not by the visa-seeking "investors" plunking down money according to rules written by domestic drafters, it would be by the (domestic) developers/promoters promising ridiculous jobs-creation numbers and tertiary "economic impact" claims. As a corollary, it is typical that the bigger the numbers involved, the bigger amount of bullshit about jobs and economic impact. Hint: compare a smaller middlin'-tier chain hotel in a location that won't likely be able to keep its occupancy rate at a level commensurate with the "investment" expended with oh, say, a data center, battery plant, a wood pellet mill, solar panel factory, beef plant, etc., etc., etc.

Now, if anyone wants to claim that the drafters of the rules and various folks who make serious money in the "investment opportunities" industry and their friends all know what they are doing, and doing it to keep the money flowing, you'd get no argument from me. It may be "abusive" but it isn't a "scam." And yes, the applicants know what they are doing, too. It is not a "scam" to make an investment for reasons other than direct monetary ROI. Mike Bloomberg just made a $1 billion investment in Johns Hopkins Med School and plainly did not expect a penny of direct ROI (I'll leave the dissection/disputing of his motives to others).


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If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

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