Thankfully — and after years of applications, discussions, searches for owners, permitting and more — the future for the property that once was the home to Kuhn Hospital is bright.

Now that the blight of the building is gone and the property a clean slate, the city of Vicksburg is taking the next step in seeking ideas on how best the property can serve the residents of Vicksburg, particularly those along that stretch of Martin Luther King Boulevard.

This week, the Board of Mayor and Alderman announced they were seeking proposals from developers — complete with cost estimates and proof of financing — on how they as developers would best use the now vacant property.

For years, the city worked hard to gain control of the property, and then worked again to get the grant funding to clean it up. It is our hope the hard work is over.

The blank slate, and the opportunity to play a role in the redevelopment of this part of Vicksburg, should be enticing for smart developers.

The proposed future of this property is to become a mixed-use residential/retail development with recreational facilities.

We ask those doing the development to understand the role the hospital once played a Vicksburg — providing a needed and welcomed service to so many— and what their development could ultimately mean.

Vicksburg for years has targeted blight within the city limits, sometimes garnering criticism from those seeing demolished buildings and lost structures as pieces of lost history. But in the case of Kuhn Memorial Hospital and its property, its time had come, and now its time has come again; just in a different way.

We look forward to seeing what developers come up with and how Kuhn can once again help shape Vicksburg’s future and the community.