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Dick Thompson stands outside of his most recent real estate purchase at 521 Franklin St.(Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

Dick Thompson stands outside of his most recent real estate purchase at 521 Franklin St.(Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

The building contains a large amount of open floor space, including approximately 2,400 square feet of mezzanine space overlooking the main floor. (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

The building has a row of unique porthole windows and a vintage elevator with a pulley system that carries a wooden platform up to each floor of the building. (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

Original banisters and staircase lead to the topmost floor. Right, deteriorating plaster on a top-story wall reveals the building’s original brickwork.(Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

Owner Dick Thompson sees this topmost level of the 521 Franklin St. building turned into two or four townhouse apartments. (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

This rear courtyard of the 521 Franklin St. building has the potential for balconies to be added for outdoor leisure. (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)

NATCHEZ — Natchez business owner Dick Thompson has purchased the 521 Franklin St. property in downtown Natchez with plans to restore and sell it.

To some, the plywood-covered, three-story shell of a former furniture warehouse that sits prominently at the corner of Franklin and Union streets may not seem like much. Still, to this contractor, it’s an opportunity to save and rehabilitate a Downtown Natchez treasure.

However, shortly after purchasing the building, one of Thompson’s businesses, Live Oak Landscapes, Nursery & Garden Center, caught on fire on June 13.

“I have a lot of ideas (for the Franklin Street building) and a lot of irons in the fire, but this fire was not in the plans,” Thompson said.

Despite the setback, he said a new roof and making the 521 Franklin St. property weather-tight is a priority so that the property doesn’t continue to fall into disrepair.

“It’s got some bad leaks causing problems to the floor and the brick. I’ve got to stabilize all of the brick because the old mortar is falling out of the mortar joints.”

Thompson’s father first opened Thompson’s Tree and Spraying Service in Natchez in 1937, a business that would later lead him back to Natchez in 1979 from his family home in Bassfield, a town of fewer than 200 people located in Jefferson Davis County.

Thompson’s corporation includes Live Oak Landscapes, Live Oak Nursery & Garden Center and Live Oak Construction. He is a businessman with many hats, including general contractor, landscape contractor and arborist.

Starting out with the greenhouse and nursery, “The business has grown and we’ve diversified,” Thompson said.

He also owns several older and some historic real estate properties that he has developed to sell, including 207 and 209 S. Commerce St.

“That property at 521 Franklin, I looked at as an opportunity,” he said. “The two 1825 buildings on S. Commerce I did and I sold one. The one that was the Pintard Law Firm, I still have and it’s gorgeous. It’s got about 4,000 square feet.”

As for the Franklin Street building, Thompson said it is one of the largest projects he has ever had but with a lot of potential.

“It’s going to be an expensive deal. Based on construction costs, 12,500 square feet of potential development space at $200 per square foot is a $2.4 million development,” he said.

To the right buyer, Thompson said he could see it become a townhouse apartment building or a commercial building on the lower levels with two or four upper-level townhouse apartments with rear balconies overlooking a courtyard.

“You could do eight townhouse apartments or you could do retail downstairs and have four apartments up here,” Thompson said. “They would be 1,250 square feet—two-bedroom and two baths—which is what people like now. You couldn’t ask for a better location and now would be a good time for people interested in a prime location to get in on the ground floor, so I could redo it like they’d want it.”

Built in the 1900s, 521 Franklin St. has been used as a furniture store — Byrne Furniture Company in the 1960s — and later as storage for National Furniture Company, owned by the Pyron family for the last several decades.

Interestingly, the building as a working elevator — a wall-less wooden platform with a vintage pulley system that carries it from floor to floor — in the entryway.

The building boasts a large amount of open floor space, including approximately 2,400 square feet of mezzanine space overlooking the main floor and the building’s original banisters and stairway leading to the top level.

The building also contains beautiful brickwork, second-story porthole windows and rectangular windows with unique blacksmith shutters, which are original to the building.

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