More businesses will join Bass Pro Shops in new South MS development. Here’s who is next
Last week’s Bass Pro Shops announcement is only part of what’s planned for Le Moyne Landing in Jackson County, just east of the D’Iberville line.
The website for the new shopping and dining complex shows a Planet Fitness also on the site plan along with spaces for about a dozen more shops and restaurants, plus a gas station.
“All that’s coming,” said Barry Cumbest, Jackson County Supervisor.
Bass Pro is on the southwestern corner of the property, where it will be seen from I-10 once the county clears some of the land along the highway, Cumbest said. Planet Fitness is coming nearby.
It’s about the same size parcel at The Promenade in D’Iberville.
Big-box retail is what the supervisors envisioned when they broke ground in 2019 for the $30 million Cook Road Connector from Exit 50 of I-10 to D’Iberville.
Le Moyne Landing is a $200 million project on more than 60 acres and is the largest of the parcels created along the road. The county has been talking to the developers while the four-lane connector road was being built, Cumbest said, but heard nothing more until recently.
Lemoyne Landing Development LLC, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, shared with the county some of the other businesses they hope to bring to the shopping center, but Cumbest said that information is confidential for now.
Bass Pro Shops is expected to open in early 2027.
Location and challenges
Le Moyne Landing will continue D’Iberville’s shopping and dining megaplex that includes The Promenade with Target, Belk and other national stores and restaurants, Walmart and Lowe’s on Sangani Boulevard and the entertainment district along Mallet Road with a movie theater, bowling and trampoline park.
“Discover Le Moyne Landing, a premier site for retail and restaurant space in one of the busiest areas in the Gulf Coast region,” is how the project is described on the website.
The new Bass Pro is located about an hour from the Bass Pro in Spanish Fort, Alabama, and about two hours from Cabela’s in Gonzales, Louisiana, and the Bass Pro in Denham Springs, Louisiana.
It will be an easy access to the new shopping center for those traveling I-10 west, who can take the D’Iberville Exit 46, get off at Lamey Bridge Road and quickly be at the site.
The configuration of roads around the I-10 and I-110 intersection in D’Iberville will make it more challenging to get to the shopping center for those driving east. They will have to exit onto Mississippi 15 north and drive through the Sangani shopping area. Or they could get off onto D’Iberville Boulevard, cross Popp’s Ferry Road and come north onto Lamey Bridge Road to reach the shopping center.
Getting back onto the interstates will be easier for those going east than those heading south or west.
County chips in millions
Most customers won’t know if they are shopping or dining in D’Iberville or Jackson County, but Cumbest said he’s glad the shopping center landed in the county.
The connector road was built for a project like this he said at the Jan, 21 supervisors’ meeting, while snow started to fall across South Mississippi.
The supervisors approved up to $35 million in tax increment finance bonds for Le Moyne Landing to help the developer defray the cost of infrastructure for the project, such as electric, cable, water, sewer lines, drainage, roads, sidewalks and parking lot improvements.
The bonds will be repaid by the 18.5% sales tax generated from development for 20 years plus 25 mills in ad valorem tax for 15 years.
The county went to the state Legislature in 2019 asking to be able to use TIF bonds like cities are allowed to give as incentive to attract developers.
This is the first time the county will be able to use the tax incentive since it was approved.
Similar to what will happen at the Buc-ee’s travel center in Harrison County, the sales tax will all go to the state when the bond is repaid. That’s because Mississippi doesn’t divert sales tax to counties like it does to cities.
More business on the way
“It’s a good project, it’s a good day,” Cumbest said as the supervisors approved the TIF bond for Le Moyne Landing.
At the same meeting the supervisors approved up to $750,000 in bonds for infrastructure at a $10 million, 156-unit apartment complex being built by local developers, also along the Mallet Road connector.
Already along the road is Lofts luxury apartments and Lofts 2 is under construction, said Coast developer Joe Cloyd.
Also coming to the area is SentryCare’s Twin Oaks Village nursing home and rehabilitation facility on a 16-acre site.
Jackson County is known for its shipbuilding industry and Chevron refinery, and Cumbest said the new shopping center and residential development will help diversify the economy.
There’s a lot of acreage still available along the new road, he said.
