A deal closed Monday was the last hurdle for investors to construct upscale townhouses on a downtown Vicksburg parcel.

&#8220You’ll start to see work in the next few weeks” at the vacant lot on Washington between Jackson and Grove streets, said Harley Caldwell, one of five Vicksburgers who make up WMHS Downtown LLC. Her partners are Johnny Sanders, attorney John Wheeless and brothers Cooper and Bob Morrison.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen authorized Mayor Laurence Leyens to execute the sale agreement and close the transaction on the property at its regular meeting. The deal is expected to close, with transfer of title, later this week, said Bob Morrison.

The property was bought by the city as part of its downtown renewal project begun in 2001, and sold to WMHS at Leyens’ urging.

&#8220It really was the mayor who put the whole thing together,” Caldwell said.

Previously, the group had already bought one of a series of abandoned buildings on the east end of the block, facing Walnut Street, from RiverHills Bank.

WMHS is obligated in its agreement with the city to begin work on the site within six months, and spend a minimum of $700,000 within two years, Morrison said.

&#8220We’ll almost certainly spend more than that,” he added.

Plans for &#8220Phase One” remain in planning stages, but will include the construction of five separate, three-story townhouses, said Caldwell, who described the proposed units as &#8220very elegant and of the caliber we’re not used to in the local market.”

The first floor of the townhouses will be a two-car garage, fronted on Washington Street by potential retail space. The second and third floors will be living spaces.

&#8220Were going to be open to what the market tells us. If the townhouses go well and quickly as we expect them to, we’ll do more townhouses. It’s possible we’ll do more smaller developments in the interior of the block,” Morrison said. &#8220But that’s all tentative. What we know were going to do is the five townhouses”.

The last time a new building was constructed downtown was in the 1990s, when Sunshine Cafe was built on 615 Crawford St. It later became Rusty’s Riverside Grill, which moved north on Washington after a fire.

There are other townhouses in the area, and upper floors of several buildings in the business district have been converted into apartments.

The urban renewal program was kicked off five years ago, using portions of a $17.5 million bond issue. One approach has been to buy empty or dilapidated properties and resell them to people who will upgrade and use them. Another aspect was a downtown makeover with new pavement, parks, parking, lighting and other amenities.

The WMHS project is one of three prospective housing ventures on Washington Street. Owner Robert Ware continues to renovate 1412 and 1414 Washington into a hotel he will dub The Ware House, with seven suites and 10 vacation units. Across the street, a California developer is still in negotiations with Leyens to buy the former Valley Department Store building for renovation into condominiums. The same developer is also looking at reopening apartments inside the old Aeolian building on Cherry Street, vacant since 1991.