NATCHEZ — Last week Natchez officials unanimously allocated an additional $50,000 for the implementation of the Downtown Natchez Master Plan, a step-by-step recipe that would hopefully change the face of Downtown Natchez by revitalizing and restoring old empty structures and filling them with new businesses buzzing with urban life.

The City formally adopted the Downtown Natchez Master Plan last year, which focuses primarily on developing three areas downtown: the Natchez Bluff; the triangle surrounded by Martin Luther King Jr., St. Catherine and Franklin streets and central part of downtown surrounding the Ritz Theater between Main and Franklin streets.

FOR Natchez, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization led the effort to recruit Philip Walker of The Walker Collaborative, an urban planning firm based in Nashville, to author the plan.

FOR Natchez Executive Director Chesney Doyle said the city funding would be used for fees to continue engaging Walker to guide local officials and community leaders through the steps listed.

Progress moves slowly with any major development, Doyle said, adding a full-time entity to put in continuous time and efforts in overseeing it would speed up the process.

“What the city has done in allowing us to enlist Mr. Walker will help us jump-start the process of implementing this plan,” Doyle said. “Phil would serve as an interim director of sorts until we can find someone to work a full-time position. He has done this before in other communities that needed help getting started.”

Following the steps

Walker said his primary objectives would be to assemble a Downtown Natchez Association — a board that would be the driving force behind the Downtown Master Plan.

Walker said he would assist local stakeholders in identifying the type of people needed to serve on the new board, establish bylaws and create job descriptions for board members and committee chairs and find sustainable funding and office space.
Walker would also work with the new board and the local stakeholders to recruit and engage an experienced economic development professional as the permanent executive director to ultimately see the project through full-time, he said.

On the side, Walker said he would also attempt to jump-start some of the recommendations that are outlined in the master plan.

“I would work 16 hours a week, mostly remote and come to Natchez at least once a month for a six-month period,” Walker said. “… It’s exciting that the city wants to take the much-needed next step. They’ve made some zoning changes and there has been some progress but we need a lot more.”

Progress

Even without a designated director to work continuously on the project, Doyle said a lot of people in favor of the downtown revitalization plan have already seen a few of the steps through.

“In the past year, our volunteers working with city staff whose plates are already overflowing have initiated some of the plan’s goals but we lack manpower capacity to bring these projects home,” she said.

Doyle said the city planning and zoning department has already remapped certain areas for their designated future use outlined in the plan and established opportunity zones for businesses.

One large step, Doyle said, was marketing the old train depot on Broadway Street to entrepreneurs willing to renovate the building into a restaurant and entertainment venue.

Natchez City Attorney Bob Latham said proposals for the Broadway Street depot are due Nov. 1, the guide for which is posted for public view on the City of Natchez website.

The selection process for the depot ends Dec. 15, Latham said.

Doyle said local business owners are opening new stores and restaurants, such as Regina’s Kitchen, 100 Main, and The Painted Petal art studio, in the central part of downtown in response to recruiting efforts.

Crooked Letter pictures is setting up a studio in the former Budweiser Building on Broadway Street, which the master plan had designated to be part of an entertainment district, Doyle said.

“If we can do all that we have done without a dedicated director, then imagine what we could accomplish with a dedicated director,” Doyle said.

“We all know that there has been a great deal of frustration over what some see as a frozen economic situation here in Natchez,” Doyle said. “ … There are a lot of good people working on all these things and more every day. … With Phil Walker as an ‘interim director’ to jumpstart the plan … we are going to see more visible, tangible evidence that our city is not stagnating. We are moving forward with focus — with ambition. Following a plan that the community created and the city adopted.”

Eola Hotel

Another factor in the downtown revitalization plan is restoring the former Eola Hotel, a 1927 historic property that hit its peak in the 1930s, to its former glory.

Robert Lubin, a Virginia Attorney who purchased the Eola Hotel in 2014, plans to renovate the building back into a 70 to 80-room hotel with apartment suites on the top floor suitable for 2020 standards while keeping the buildings historical integrity.

Lubin said the first phase of the project had been completed earlier this year and he has since worked closely with a group to secure a contractor and finance the second phase of the project.

“We’ve actually done quite a bit of work inside and we need to continue,” Lubin said. “I’m hoping to have a contract signed within the next week and close on that contract within six weeks.”

Once started, Lubin said construction on the building’s interior should be finished in approximately 12 months or less.

“We definitely want to be part of the solution,” Lubin said. “We all love Natchez and we’re trying our hardest to get things done.”