A ‘defining moment.’ Gautier gets $5M to buy mall property, build town center.
Gautier is a big step closer to having a downtown.
The city will receive $3.5 million from this year’s first Gulf Coast Restoration Fund awards and another $1.5 million from the state Legislature’s bond bill to buy the former Singing River Mall site on U.S. 90 as part of creating Gautier Town Center.
Most of the 40-year-old mall was demolished in February 2014. A Walmart store that was expected to be built there never happened and a free-standing Belk is the only store remaining on the 55-acre site.
“It’s a pretty defining moment for the city of Gautier,” Mayor Phil Torjusen said Thursday. “That’s $5 million we don’t have to pay back to anybody,” he said of the combined awards.
City leaders have been planning and working on a town center for about a decade. The latest plans are for “a complete mixed use development,” he said, with grocery stores, restaurants and entertainment.
They also have plans for a Mississippi Songwriters Association museum to be built in downtown Gautier and for the GI Museum that currently is on Mississippi 57 to relocate there.
“We’ve got some people that want to build a hotel,” he said, and the city also is looking at potential housing on the northeast section of the land as part of a workforce program.
The city built a roundabout and a fountain with a BP grant from the state and in addition to the 55-acre mall property already owns 33 acres just north of that, Torjusen said.
There an amphitheater, musical fountain, pavilion and walking trails will be built, he said, along with facilities for kayaking on the lake that is on the site.
City Manager Paula Yancey said the Town Commons Park will soon be under construction as part of the town center.
“Cities with a town center are more viable long-term than those without town centers,” Yancey said.
The city has an option to purchase the mall property and has a preliminary development agreement with Blackwater Development Co., which is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama and has developments in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and 21 states.
In 2019, the state Legislature passed a Local and Private bill that allows the city to acquire the mall property and lease the land to a developer at less than fair market value as an incentive for attracting retail development.
Redevelopment of the old mall site has been stifled for years, the city said Thursday in a press release, because of the large size of the parcel and the changing retail environment.
Cities in other states have been able to offer long-term leases of $1 for 75 years to attract tenants, the mayor said, and build their tax base.
“The mayor and the entire city council have made the redevelopment of the Town Center as its number one priority for the citizens of Gautier,” Yancey said.
