Jackson starts over on downtown hotel

Convention center deal fell through

JACKSON, Miss. — The Jackson Redevelopment Authority is starting over to find a developer to build a long-delayed hotel across from the Jackson Convention Complex in downtown.

JRA interim executive director Willie Mott told The Clarion-Ledger that the decision came this week after a deal announced in June for Savannah, Ga.-based Robinson Callen development firm to build the facility was not completed.

“We will be there, and we will bid,” said Robinson Callen, the development company’s namesake and managing member. “Other people will have the same opportunity. That’s how it should be. We’re on board win, lose or draw.”

It was announced in June that Robinson Callen would build a $60 million, 12-story, 305-room hotel to serve the convention center, which opened in January 2009.

JRA board chairman Ronnie Crudup said the deal was preliminary from the start and couldn’t be finalized because “things the authority was asking for in the deal ... those things never materialized” by a deadline of Oct. 15.

“At this point,” he said, “it’s dead.”

Callen said the company’s bid generally will be the same as what was announced in June. His hotel plan included surface, landscaped parking, as well as $9 million in JRA- and taxpayer-backed loans to help finance the development.

The hotel was to have opened at the same time as the convention center, but the economic downturn and other issues have caused years of delays.

Jackson Convention Complex officials have said a neighboring hotel is necessary to draw lucrative multiday events.