Home-improvement business expected to open store in April

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, July 10, 2002

Workers from Maptech, Inc. Kevin Lane, left, and David Brister survey the Ergon property between South Frontage Road and Halls Ferry Park where the new Home Depot will be built.(The Vicksburg Post/C. Todd Sherman)

[07/10/02]Work started quickly after the July 1 vote at City Hall to back a Home Depot-centered development and the site off South Frontage Road is nearly cleared so leveling work can begin.

Crews working for Ergon Properties of Jackson began clearing the 17-acre wooded tract during the weekend. Jim Defoe, vice president of Ergon Properties, said the 250,000-square-foot store to be built there is expected to open in April.

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“A lot of work has got to happen between now and then,” Defoe said.

Plans also call for a second phase of development centering around the former Halls Ferry School which Ergon purchased in February for $451,000 from the local school district. Defoe said the 50-year-old elementary school building will be torn down to make room for a 50,000-square-foot retail shopping center.

He said Ergon is planning to develop that site at the same time as the Home Depot property, but did not say when the demolition is expected to begin.

“We’re working on some other things that the City of Vicksburg will really like, but I can’t go public with that right now,” Defoe said.

He said more information will be forthcoming once a deal is in place.

Ergon will prepare the site for the home-improvement store and then turn the property over to Home Depot, which will build the store. City officials who awarded up to $900,000 in tax increment financing for the project with the unanimous vote said they expect building construction to begin around October.

“This will be a very fast, major construction project,” said Mayor Laurence Leyens.

The city financing will fund road improvements, traffic signals and water and sewer lines. The money will be repaid over the next 10 years out of the $515,000 expected to be generated in local taxes by the development at a rate of $75,000 to $100,000 per year.

The home improvement store is expected to employ about 200 people and generate about $20 million in sales a year, according to numbers provided by Gouras Planning Consultants. Home Depot is the second-largest retailer in the nation, second to Wal-Mart.

Ergon is expected to spend about $17.7 million on the development. Several local business owners were among those who objected to the city supporting the development through tax incentives. They said they did not mind the competition, but objected to the city helping to bring the retail store to Vicksburg.

TIF has been used by city and county boards for various projects, including River Region Medical Center, Vicksburg Factory Outlets and Wal-Mart SuperCenter.