‘Transformative’ project will cost $105 million, reshape downtown Gulfport
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- Developers plan $105M mixed-use project in downtown Gulfport to spur growth.
- Project includes 115-room Tribute Portfolio hotel, 136 apartments, shops and parking.
- State grants supply $16M for public parking garage; city to receive ownership.
Developers expect to break ground in December on a $105 million project in downtown Gulfport unlike any the Coast has seen.
“We do transformative projects only,” said Sunny Sethi of Madison, CEO of Bellamare Development. “We only do projects that move the needle on quality of life and economic development.”
Bellamare is partnering with Mississippi Coast-based AnderCorp, where Roy Anderson III is chairman and CEO, on the development of just under 5 acres at the northwest corner of U.S. 49 and 90 downtown. The development, known as Gulfport Town Center, will include a Tribute Portfolio by Marriott hotel, luxury apartments, retail shops and a parking garage.
Bellamare and AnderCorp are working on the project with the Gulfport Redevelopment Commission, which manages properties and projects for the city, including construction of the Mississippi Aquarium downtown.
GRC has helped the development secure $16 million in state funding, including $10.5 million from the Gulf Coast Restoration Fund, where grants for economic development come from Mississippi’s settlement with BP over the 2010 oil spill.
Bellamare and AnderCorp stepped into the project about 18 months ago, Sethi said. The previous developers were unable to move forward with their plans.
The new development group has closed on a loan for apartments and the parking garage, and expects to close in the next few weeks on a loan for the hotel.
Sethi said his group also is involved in four other projects planned for the Coast, including a Holiday Inn in Gulfport at the foot of DeBuys Road overlooking U.S. 90.
Amenities planned for downtown property
The apartments planned for the Gulfport Town Center will be the first of their kind on the Mississippi Coast, Sethi said. He compared the 136-unit complex, which will include some loft apartments, to apartment buildings in Nashville and Austin.
The apartments will include common and shared work spaces, a gym, a mail room, a self-checkout market, outdoor pavilion and an oversized outdoor pool shared with the hotel. Most units will have waterfront views and many will include balconies.
“It’s a very amenity-rich apartment,” he said. “It’s not a traditional apartment.”
Developers found that people are driving from New Orleans to the Mississippi Coast to work because they want more leisure options, said Anna Jane Stanley, Bellamare’s vice president.
“We wanted to have a mixed-use development that is a revitalization of downtown,” Stanley said, “ . . . a district where you could go walk around, get a cup of coffee, eat and live.”
The apartments will be managed by Rain Residential in Ocean Springs. The five-story apartments will house retail space, including a local coffee shop, on the ground floor.
The hotel will sit on the property’s east side. Marriott describes Tribute Portfolios as boutique hotels with unique designs, independently operated and considered premium properties.
The five-story hotel will feature 115 rooms, a restaurant and a unique rooftop bar with an overhang. The bar will offer sweeping views of the Mississippi Sound.
Stanley said the hotel includes details that harken back to the Great Southern Hotel, which opened on the same site around 1903 and was demolished to make way for U.S. 90 in the 1950s.
Design touches in the hotel and apartment common areas will pay tribute to the Great Southern Hotel and Mississippi Coast.
Funding from the Gulf Coast Restoration Fund will cover costs for the 294-space parking garage that will be given to the city. The development also will offer surface parking.
This story was originally published October 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
