Old Capitol Green

[tombarnes]

Old Capitol Greel Project Inches Forward

The Old Capitol Green project, a development by Full Spectrum Inc. of New York, is proceeding, however slowly it may appear to observers. The project calls for an impressive array of housing units, shops, restaurants, offices, theaters and a hotel. The project has been mentioned previously in the general Jackson thread above, but ought to have its own thread to encourage discussion.

The Clarion Ledger

[spoody]

I wish an extension on the Go Zone deal could be extended for projects like this. The time and money required to research and rework the infrastructure at a project of this size tend to encourage the development of big projects on undeveloped land where it's much more expedient to just clear cut and install the infrastructure new.

I talked with a guy involved in the construction of the Pinnacle Building, downtown, and the problems they encountered connecting water and sewer for the new site were unbelievable. Water lines shown on old plans were non-existent or not of adequate size or material, etc.

By the way, when they dug into Capital Street looking for utilities, they encountered the old city trolley line track system, still intact about 4 feet below the surface. They had to take out a small portion of it to access utilities, and that was no small feat according to him. It was built right!

[Florida]

that's pretty neat... about the trolley line. I wonder why they stopped it.

[tombarnes]

I'm not exactly sure when Jackson's trolleys went out of service, but it might have been about the time in which National City Lines, a holding company funded by auto, bus and tire interests, bought up and systematically destroyed many of the nation's transit systems. I'd guess in the early 1950's. Good question. I'll see what I can find out on this one. That would be worth a new thread.

[Florida]

I told the family about this. They had no idea about this. They've been in Jackson their whole lives.

[tombarnes]

Development Grant Could Push Project Forward

A community block development grant of just $4m could be the incentive needed to nudge a billion+ project forward? Apparently so. While I'm vexed about why such a paltry amount is neede for infrastructure grants to move the project forward, it stands to reaon that the infrastructure must first be improved before major development can take place. Having said this, I'm not sure about the timetable for getting this off the ground. According to the article below, it will be at least 8-10 years before even the first phase of the project is completed. While this is taking forever, it's vitally important for this project to happen. A large underused area of downtown could eventually spring to life if this goes forward as planned. I hope the grant goes through....stay tuned.

The Northside Sun

[tombarnes]

Perhaps not the clearest image in the world....