JSU Breaking Ground on University Place

Courtesy Jackson State University

A four-story development with retail space and apartments is under construction near Jackson State University.

by Ward Schaefer
October 27, 2009

A long-awaited development project near Jackson State University has begun its first phase at the corner of Dalton and Lynch Streets. The JSU Development Foundation, which supports the university through investments, will celebrate the groundbreaking on the four-story, mixed-use building at 10 a.m. tomorrow, marking the official start of construction on its $125 million University Place development.

Located across from JSU's new student center, the $14 million building will house 22,000 square feet of retail space on its bottom floor and roughly 75 apartments on the top three floors. Work began on the structure over a month ago, but tomorrow's event was the first date available for a formal groundbreaking, said Troy Stovall, a vice president with the JSU Development Foundation.

The Foundation hopes to attract businesses to the bottom floor that will serve the students, faculty and nearby residents' daily needs, Stovall said. Those could include a grocery store and pharmacy, in addition to other food vendors, specialty retail and medical services. The apartments will likely go to JSU's married and graduate students, Stovall said.

"It's part of President (Ronald) Mason's vision of bringing the university into the community and bring the community into the university," Stovall said.

Funding for the building comes through New Market Tax Credits, using a $9 million loan from Trustmark Bank, he added. The Development Foundation is still securing financing for later phases of the University Place project, which will include several different mixed-income housing developments.

In one future phase, the Foundation will build roughly 40 single-family homes near the Terry Road roundabout, using similar New Market Tax Credits. Groundbreaking on that project is more than a year away, however. Stovall expects that some of the homes will be available to buyers making as little as $25,000 to $35,000.

"Our real goal is to create a mixed-income, mixed-race community," Stovall told the Jackson Free Press in September.

Earnestine Bowden opened The Rib Shack, a barbecue and seafood restaurant, in a historic shoe shop on Lynch Street in July. She said that construction on the new building was a welcome sign of redevelopment in the area.

"I think it's great," Bowden said. "It's going to benefit us. It'll probably increase my business."

Downtown Jackson Partners President Ben Allen hailed the project as "hugely significant."

"This is just the first phase that will connect Jackson State to downtown Jackson, much like you see in Starkville and Oxford," Allen said. "If you look at what Starkville and Oxford are like today, as compared to 25 years ago, it's not even the same town. This is really big, and what's encouraging is this isn't downtown. It's going to be connected to downtown, but this is West Jackson."

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