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 20thCentury 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.
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