Sure, Pass Road is ugly. But it could be the next trendy hot spot for Coast development.
It has a reputation for having a rough exterior.
But sparkling white buildings are popping up and new attractions are drawing people to Pass Road, even before a huge antique marketplace opens in Gulfport.
Pass Road, which stretches from the Seabee Base in Gulfport to the back gate of Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, also has its challenges. Potholes, empty buildings, too many signs and and rundown businesses mar the 13-mile drive .
Those challenges also bring opportunities, says Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes.
The price of real estate is more affordable on Pass Road than along other commercial corridors like Cowan Road and U.S. 49, he said. Developers are rehabilitating existing properties, he said, and building new construction.
“People are going to want to be in proximity to where things are happening,” Hewes said. “Success begets success.”
Pass Road represents opportunity for Biloxi, said Jerry Creel, Biloxi community development director.
New owners just purchased the former Winn-Dixie shopping center, he said. “They are looking now at creating some out-parcels.”
The former grocery store at the corner of Pass and Popp’s Ferry roads has been closed since 2018.
Biloxi Council on Tuesday started the process to issue a $17 million bond, with plans to direct about half of the money toward extending Popp’s Ferry Road from Pass Road to U.S. 90.
“Once the extension of Popp’s Ferry to the beach goes in, we expect that to be one of the busiest corners in the city,” Creel said.
A short distance to the east, acres of grass on the former Broadwater casino site, which backs up to Pass Road, could become UMUSIC Broadwater Hotel and Casino. The $1.2 billion casino resort is proposed in partnership with Universal Music Group.
Is Pass Road the new hot spot?
The most up-and-coming stretch of the road now is between DeBuys and Cowan roads in Gulfport, where I Heart Mac & Cheese restaurant recently opened in one of those white commercial buildings and Mississippi Antique Galleria is being readied for up to 500 dealers.
The improvements on that section of Pass Road launched in 2019, when Rouses Market moved from one corner of Pass Road at Cowan to a completely remodeled store at the opposite corner.
Latino grocery stores, such as Tortillería Morelos grocery at 1982 East Pass Road and Supermercado La Veracruzana at 2044 East Pass Road, have opened.
Modern white buildings with black trim are becoming somewhat of a design standard. Southern Charm Furniture & Design sports the crisp look along with a row of white shopping centers built by Garlon Pemberton and HP Development, a local builder working on several projects across South Mississippi.
Five white retail centers lined up on the south side of Pass Road house Layla’s Coffee Shop, The Cotton Patch children’s boutique, Coast Day Spa and several other trendy businesses.
Pemberton recently started work on another shopping center to the east of the five for Ivan Spinner, a local developer. Spinner owns Gulf Coast Exotic Auto, and will put a showroom in this new building, Pemberton said. Other tenants waiting for the building to be complete are a mortgage company, real estate agency and a law firm, he said.
The modern new buildings have drawn attention and clients. Businesses that relocated there are doing better than in their previous locations, he said.
Planes, trains attract crowds
Pass Road is also home to schools, churches, cemeteries, professional offices and apartments buildings.
Tourists and residents alike can visit the Mississippi Aviation Heritage Museum that honors John Robinson, the first African American pilot to fight in combat, and others in Mississippi who contributed to aviation.
Nearby is the Mississippi Coast Model Railroad Museum, and together these two attractions are bringing new life to Pass Road near Hewes Avenue in Gulfport.
Richard Mueller is one of the backers and volunteers at the Railroad Museum that now fills buildings on the north and south sides of Pass Road.
The original building on the north side has 7,000 square feet of trains and 1.5 acres of garden and outdoor riding trains, he said.
“We have since purchased a shopping center on the south side,” he said, and it is 42,000 square feet.
Another building between there and Hewes Avenue was purchased recently, giving them 70,000 more square feet. “We expect over time to expand our model trains into it,” he said, along with a very large Lego display.
Pass Road has been a good location for the non-profit museum, he said.
“It’s extremely affordable compared to other property on the Coast,” Mueller said said. Although the buildings were older, he said they came with good roofs, parking lots and signs.
The museum attracts local families and lots of birthday parties, he said, along with tourists, who are “shocked” by the low cost of admission and the number of trains running.
The museum will host Gulfport Train Show and Sale on March 26-27, and it’s one of six times a year they will open the south building to the public.
“We pull in a heck of a crowd,” he said.
New antique gallery to open
Expected to draw a big crowd when it opens, Mississippi Antique Galleria on Pass Road in East Gulfport is believed to be the largest antique mall in Mississippi.
“The entire building is right around 90,000 square feet,” said owner Jourdan Nicaud. Areas at the front of the sprawling shopping center are rented and he said the antiques shop will fill the other 70,000 square feet.
The opening was delayed by COVID-19 and damages from Hurricane Zeta. Nicaud said his goal is to open this spring.
Vendors will be able to rent 10X10 space staffed by the complex. While the antiques and collectibles may be old, the galleria will allow the vendors to have their own virtual stores where shoppers can browse and buy online and come by the galleria to pick up their purchases, he said.
The Gulfport and Biloxi transformation
Restaurants and attractions bring more people to Pass Road, said Brian Bolis, who specialized in commercial real estate at NAI Sawyer real estate firm in Gulfport.
“I think anything positive like that helps,” he said.
More is needed to dress it up and get it ready for the development that is coming.
It’s not “the garden” spot, Bolis said. Manholes and potholes need to be fixed, he said, and the large buildings sitting empty are hard to sell unless they are divided.
“Pass Road has great opportunity. No question about it,” he said.
This story was originally published March 16, 2022 at 12:10 PM.
