A balanced mix of industries in Vicksburg has won the city helpings of praise from independent studies and local elected officials.

Studies conducted in 2006 by Florida-based economic research firm POLICOM Corp. rated Vicksburg and Warren County 38th in economic strength among small-to-medium-sized cities, largely because one single industry does not dominate the economy.

Still, a city’s economic pulse is often kept alive by how many places people have to shop and spend their money. Numbers seemingly paint a rosy picture in Warren County, as retail sales showed 12 percent growth here during peak sales periods in 2006.

But a look at numbers from the other side indicate challenges remain for Vicksburg prime shopping centers, some being attainable and some nearing a turning point, as in the condition of the area’s major retail mall, long a symbol of dominance in the American shopping landscape.

Despite the presence of big-box stores Dillard’s and Belk, Pemberton Square has seen its bona fides with local shoppers drop considerably in recent years, with the failures of large chain restaurants and smaller locally managed businesses.

Monthly rents that would easily be balanced by steady customer flow have reportedly become a burden in recent years. About 10 businesses have closed at Pemberton in three years.

Mayor Laurence Leyens spoke to the Vicksburg Rotary Club in January on Pemberton’s downturn, calling it &#8220a disaster.”

&#8220I’ve met with them about once every year and we’ve put together a proposal to redevelop the mall before it becomes the Battlefield Mall – then we’ll be calling on Brother (Blackburn) once more.”

Cinema 4, Vicksburg’s lone movie theater since the mall opened in 1985, closed in December, leaving the city without a movie theater for the first time in a century.

Sources said rent was the issue there, but the tipping point may have been a day of chaos there Dec. 9 when an argument between two former cinema employees ended up in a stabbing and an arrest.

Revenues for CBL, which owns the mall, rose more than 10 percent in 2006, but actions taken to protest the mall’s property taxes have actually reflected a depreciated view of its holding here, as valuations have dipped from $10.1 million in 2002 to $6.6 million last year.

Economic figures 20 years ago justified the company’s building a &#8220brand-new” mall, Leyens said. Referencing plaudits the city has received for its economic balance, Leyens indicated the questions he asks of CBL have increased in frustration.

&#8220It (the Vicksburg market) is even more viable than it was then, so why are you letting it continue to decay?”

Leyens also spoke of the city’s most recent offer to CBL last fall, one that entailed tearing down the front side of the mall and making the JCPenney location a &#8220satellite.” Dillard’s and Belk would likely remain on each end of the property.

&#8220They’d have five restaurant pads and a movie theater,” Leyens said, adding a $2 million tax increment financing plan, or TIF, whereby tax revenues are reliant on property value increases derived from projected future improvements, would remake the surrounding roadway.

Leyens said Friday the company has not settled on the plan, adding the company has not ruled out selling the property altogether.

Debbie Millhouse, marketing manager for CBL’s regional office in Dallas, did not deny discussions had taken place but offered no updates.

&#8220Nothing has been finalized at this point,” Millhouse said.

Adding to the irony is Pemberton Square’s own home page on the Internet, which features a link to the United Artists cinema in Clinton through online movie ticket service Fandango.com.

The picture is a bit more stable at Vicksburg Factory Outlets, built in 1995 with a generous $1.1 million TIF from Vicksburg and Warren County.

Improvements there have stalled since 2004, when too few prospective tenants committed to leasing space. Still, said marketing director Liz Porter, plans remain in place to expand the L-shaped, 115,000-square-foot strip of stores westward in 2008.

The mall’s principal owners, California-based Craig Realty Group, is aggressively working the project, Porter said, adding it will be driven by who is interested in leasing space. Some companies need 7,000 to 8,000 square feet, something VFO cannot offer, Porter said.

Business remains &#8220in a tough spot” because of Internet shopping, she said. However, hopes for 2007 were buoyed by a spike in January sales Porter said were &#8220double digits” higher than the same time in 2006. With anchors including Haggar Clothing Co. and Gap Outlet, 25 of 32 spaces are occupied.

Porter described marketing as a collaborative venture at VFO. Outlet officials meet with managers of individual stores monthly to examine advertising strategies, she said, adding marketing dollars come from a pool of funds individual stores pay into in addition to their rents.

Conversely, two managers who had leases canceled at Pemberton in August 2006 following a botched robbery and fight that hospitalized both said their attempts to involve mall management in their ideas to perk up business fell on deaf ears.

Downtown Vicksburg, specifically Washington Street, has its architecture to complement its allure, said Main Street board chairman Harry Sharp, owner of four properties on Washington alone.

&#8220One thing the malls don’t have is the uniqueness,” Sharp said of the downtown retail area.

Main Street collected $5,650 from 42 businesses in 2006. For 2007, 148 businesses are listed in the directory, 44 of which are considered retail, Main Street hopes to grow their advertising strategy of &#8220Vicksburg first,” Sharp said.

&#8220It’s a matter of re-educating the locals to come downtown,” he added.

One way is through attracting more residency to downtown, something Main Street director Rosalie Theobald said can only add to a rebirth of the area she traces to the urban renewal bond issue of 2001.

Both acknowledged a consistent criticism of businesses downtown, their short daily hours that create a lonely streetscape by 6 p.m., could be rectified by more people moving there.

&#8220You’ve got to have downtown residents to have downtown businesses,” Sharp said.

As for smaller, strip mall developments in town, the pace has slowed in most spots.

Development of Halls Ferry Station at South Frontage and Halls Ferry roads has been stalled since panel walls were erected more than a year ago.

Developer Claiborne Frazier said last week &#8220construction issues” with the walls have delayed transfer of the 30,000-square-foot space since he announced its sale in July. Frazier would not specify what those problems have been, nor would he identify the potential suitor this week, saying he should close on it &#8220in two weeks.”

Eight businesses have signed leases to operate there, including what would be Vicksburg’s first Quiznos franchise. Savita Nair of Jackson-based Cook Commerical Properties said vendors won’t learn the fate of their plans until ownership is settled.

Land adjacent to the strip mall, owned by Halls Ferry Station’s former owners, Ergon Properties, is being marketed for retail and restaurant development, vice president Jim DeFoe said.

The company is asking $8 a square foot for the 1.7 acres of land in front of The Home Depot, DeFoe said. A 12,000- to 15,000-square-foot center is envisioned there, he added.

Another strip mall, between Wal-Mart SuperCenter and Iowa Boulevard, is Renaissance Vicksburg Plaza. Developed by Hot Springs, Ark.-based Renaissance Development, the 19,200-square-foot space has room for 10 tenants. So far, video game giant GameStop and a payday loans business have agreements to move in.

Grocery shopping choices figure to improve once the Kroger subsidiary which purchased the former Kmart building on Pemberton Squre Boulevard develops its plans.

Along with Kroger, the main supermarkets in Vicksburg since Sack & Save closed in August 2005 have been Wal-Mart, County Market, Corner Market (formerly IGA) and Piggly Wiggly.

Speculation has abounded over what Kroger plans to do with the building, with talk ranging from a gourmet-style layout to one with discount gasoline pumps. The company is talking with city officials about revamping the 87,000-square-foot building.

A release announcing the company’s breaking ground on a new, 61,076-square-foot store in Madison Feb. 13 foreshadowed plans here.

&#8220We have got new facilities in Flowood and Byram, a newly remodeled store and fuel center in Brandon, plans for expansions at the current Madison store, and exciting changes planned for the Spillway, Clinton and even Vicksburg areas!” said Mark Prestidge, marketing manager for the Delta area.

The former Sack & Save property on South Frontage Road, dormant since parent company Winn-Dixie Stores filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, is still owned by the Ciragnano Family Limited Partnership of New York.

Winn-Dixie has said since November that it has no information on the fate of their former store.