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Natchez has been awarded a million-dollar federal grant to help cleanup the polluted downtown Fry building site, which the city plans to redevelop into a parking garage adjacent to the Eola hotel.
Razing the Fry building and replacing it with the parking facility is considered essential for developers’ long-stalled plans to renovate and reopen the now-closed hotel.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that Natchez is getting its $1.1 million from the agency’s Brownfields Cleanup Grant program. The Fry building and land on Pearl and Franklin streets are contaminated with hazardous asbestos and other pollutants, according to EPA.
Historical documents indicate the one-acre site was developed with dwellings, warehouses and boarding houses during the late 1800s. Between 1901 and 1904, the southeast portion of the site was developed with a building containing offices, stores and restaurants and used until 2021, when it was deeded to the city. The cleanup site is contaminated with polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, inorganic contaminants and metals. Grant funds also will be used to update an existing community involvement plan and support community engagement activities.
Natchez’ grant is the largest of those handed out to five Mississippi communities getting Brownfields cleanup money, which is also being distributed throughout the United States.
“We’re working across the country to revitalize what were once dangerous and polluted sites in overburdened communities into more sustainable and environmentally just places that serve as community assets. Thanks to President Biden’s historic investments in America, we’re moving further and faster than ever before to clean up contaminated sites, spur economic redevelopment and deliver relief that so many communities have been waiting for,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan.
The city acquired the deteriorating Fry office building in 2021 in a donation from previous owner Walter Davis. Subsequent environmental assessments have been done with the help of a $492,000 federal grant Natchez-Adams County received in 2021 to study the extent of pollution at various sites that could be cleaned up and redeveloped. The Natchez Board of Aldermen and mayor have presented plans to tear down the Fry building and construct a parking facility.
For the Eola, its private hotel developers have encountered higher-than-expected costs to refurbish the 1927 building, but they’ve expressed optimism it will be done. The hotel has been closed since 2014.
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