NATCHEZ, Miss. – Mayor Dan Gibson said he’s traveling to Atlanta to meet today with “international investors” interested in “technology” and “a large investment that could be related to industry” in Natchez.
Meeting Tuesday with Natchez aldermen, the mayor didn’t go into details about the business prospects. He did say the trip will also take him to Savannah to meet with local officials there, including at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Attracting and accommodating new businesses is among the top priorities of Natchez-Adams County officials as they try to bring more people, jobs and revenues to the economically struggling community. One business expansion the city gained late last year is Loss Prevention Services. The company located its corporate headquarters in the former Regions bank building at Franklin and Pearl streets with plans to eventually employ about 300 people.
The Natchez Board of Aldermen on Tuesday approved the hiring of a contractor to rebuild and landscape the old A&P parking lot, which will be used by LPS employees. As an inducement to get LPS to expand in Natchez, the state, county and city joined in putting up funds, equipment and labor for redoing the old A&P property, which included city-county crews demolishing the grocery store once there.
Stubbs NK Contractors of Natchez was the winning bidder among 10 companies seeking the parking-lot job, which calls for repaving the parking area to fit about 90 vehicles. The plans also involve installing lamps and landscaping the lot on Franklin and Wall streets. Stubbs’ $322,600 proposal was the lowest of the bids. The state is providing about $260,000 for this from the Mississippi Development Authority. LPS is putting up $88,000.
LPS is an information-technology company that helps banks and other lenders find and repossess automobiles from delinquent-paying borrowers throughout the country.
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Aldermen heard a request from Main Street restaurant owner Fred Kent to allow The Kitchen Bistro to build an outdoor dining venue at the front of the building. While it would not block pedestrians from the Main Street sidewalk, the restaurant’s storefront expansion would take up a couple of street parking spaces, Kent said. City officials expressed support for Kent’s plans but said further review is required before giving permission.
Noting how the COVID pandemic has hurt restaurants, Kent said outdoor-dining accommodations are essential to help them survive and to encourage more people to dine out. “We’re trying to get something stirred up downtown,” he said.
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Aldermen reaffirmed their plans to lease the old Broadway Street train depot to movie producers Tate Taylor and John Norris. With plans for redeveloping the city-owned building into a restaurant having been stalled since 2016 by various complications, aldermen were asked Tuesday to vote for a “letter of intent” with the developers showing the project is still moving forward.
Doing business as Church Hill Variety, Norris said a final lease with the city board is “so close” to being finalized. He told aldermen he’s “very encouraged and enthusiastic ”about renovating and reopening the long-vacant building as a restaurant this summer. His attorney, Scott Slover, noted the plans Taylor and Norris have for the depot – along with their other nearby properties — should make the city’s north river bluff area “a really happening place.” They have two other eateries and bars – Smoot’s Grocery and The Little Easy – and their Crooked Letter movie studio on High Street.
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