NATCHEZ, Miss. – The renovation of the Natchez Convention Center will be going into another phase with nearly $1 million city aldermen approved Monday for contracting a Natchez construction company to do the work.
The various improvements being done will make it “the most talked-about convention center when people visit,” said Mayor Dan Gibson. “It will be a dramatic change.”
The Board of Aldermen selected Hope Enterprises on Monday to do the next phase that includes refurbishing the convention center’s Main and Canal streets’ entry lobbies along with redoing the corridors, restrooms and second-floor meeting rooms. New designs are to include arched transoms supported by new columns along the interior corridor with seating areas and wall space for community displays.
Hope’s $965,500 proposal the board accepted Monday was the lowest of three construction companies bidding for this job.
The renovation’s first phase that’s already begun focuses on giving the convention center’s large assembly hall new wall coverings, carpet, paint and repairing the moveable walls at a cost of about $700,000. Smith Painting & Contracting is doing that work.
The 32,000-square-feet convention center’s renovation is being paid for with $3 million Natchez has through debt-incurring bonds that the city will be paying off with added interest for the next several years. The convention center was built in 2002 with $12 million the city received in bond money it’s been repaying since then with revenues received from a special tax imposed by restaurants and hotels on its patrons.
City officials have been trying to finance ways to enhance the facility for the past decade as a way to attract more conventions to Natchez and generate more revenues for the city.
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