King Edward Project Making Progress

King Edward work now awaits city's OK

By Jack Mazurak
jmazurak@clarionledger.com
And Joshua Cogswell
jcogswell@clarionledger.com

Joe Ellis/The Clarion-Ledger The King Edward Hotel sits vacant along the western border of downtown Jackson. By the numbers $55 million Estimated cost of renovations. $4 million Loan amount that city could vote to award to developers as part of public-private partnership. 72 Number of condominiums proposed. 152 Number of hotel rooms proposed.

Fifteen years of talk on refurbishing the long-vacant King Edward Hotel could soon be over.

"The money is in place, the investors are ready to go and it should be before the (City) Council next week," economic developer Jimmy Heidel said Tuesday.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development this week approved a $4 million piece of funding for the downtown project, key for the public-private partnership. The Jackson City Council must vote to give the money to developers David Watkins, a Jackson lawyer; New Orleans Saints running back Deuce McAllister and Historic Renovations Inc. of New Orleans.The 82-year-old hotel has been vacant since 1967, but Historic Renovations Inc.'s plan would rework it into 72 high-end one- and two-bedroom condominiums and 152 hotel rooms. The first phase, which includes a thorough assessment of the building to determine whether the project is a go, should begin in March. The $55 million project is scheduled to take two years.

Both the city and developers said most of the $4 million from HUD will be used later in the project. Only a small part will go to the preliminary exploration. Jackson Mayor Frank Melton had pushed since entering office in July to have the building imploded if no movement was shown on the project. Although he'd need council approval for the expense, he still stands behind his statements.

"(The developers') dreams are wonderful, but the reality, I'm not so sure about. There's nothing more that I'd like to do than to give them a chance to make it work," he said. "But I'm still looking into having it destroyed. I have no option if something doesn't happen down there."

The King Edward is owned by the Jackson Redevelopment Authority, a semiautonomous branch of city government, but would be turned over to developers later in the renovation. Hal Fairbanks, director of acquisitions at Historic Renovations Inc., said the exact nature of the funding, when it's available and who puts their dollars in first, must still be negotiated.

"Obviously, there's a number of things we're going to have to negotiate with the city. But by all means, this is a huge positive for the project," he said. HRI's next steps will be the assessment and abatement of biohazards, such as pigeon droppings, finding a contractor and negotiating a price.

"The initial work allows the design to evolve far enough where there will be no guess work. That way contractors go into a clean building," Fairbanks said. "You've got to start on several things at the same time, because they all have input on each other."

Council President Marshand Crisler said he expects the vote to give developers the money to pass. Ward 5 Councilman Charles Tillman said Tuesday that he is unsure how he will vote because he needs to do more research on the proposal. "For one project to suck this much money up is a concern to me," Tillman said.

Despite other's concerns, Fairbanks said at this point he's sure the property is worth the investment. Local hotels have been brimming since Hurricane Katrina hit Aug. 29.Scott Sledge, president of the Mississippi Hotel and Lodging Association, said the area's approximately 100 hotels experienced a 93.5 percent occupancy rate in September, the most recent month for which data is available, versus the typical rate for this time of year, which hovers between 54 and 60 percent.

Once the market returns, Sledge said there may not be a need for another hotel in the metro area.