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Highway 80 Gets Scrutinized, Organized

After declining slowly for decades, the Highway 80 corridor in south Jackson is poised for a rebirth. The Jackson Redevelopment Authority is looking to have the corridor designated an urban renewal area within the next 60 days, JRA executive director Jason Brookins told the Jackson Free Press Friday. The designation would allow the organization to push economic-development efforts in the area by purchasing blighted property, offering tax exemptions on improvements and issuing bonds.

Duane O'Neill: Marketing Jackson

Duane O'Neill has one of the nicest offices in Jackson, a high-ceilinged corner office in the old fire station next to City Hall. The place is appropriate for a man with his stature in Jackson's business community. O'Neill is president of the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership, sometimes called the Metro Chamber, which acts as a chamber of commerce and economic development entity for the entire Jackson metropolitan area, supporting Jackson-based projects like the Convention Center and metro-area efforts like the Canton Nissan plant.

Where the Jobs Are in 2010

If we're lucky, we're coming out a deep recession and looking at economic growth that, hopefully, will mean jobs, consumer spending and new business investment nationally. Jackson is poised to take advantage of economic revitalization, but to do it, we'll need to pull together and create opportunities.

[Kamikaze] Transfer the Power

This city is on the brink of greatness, with more than a billion dollars worth of new development downtown. Young professionals, black and white, are choosing to live, work, and play in an urban environment. New restaurants are all over town. New residential projects are springing up throughout the capital.

Business Roundup

The Jackson Police Department is restarting an initiative aimed at preventing crime around the city's hotels and motels and protecting visitors. Called Tourism Oriented Policing Strategies, or TOPS, the program emphasizes building relationships between police and city businesses.

Business Round Up: Two Markets and A New Film Festival

A former grocery store near the Jackson Medical Mall reopened Saturday as a farmer's market. Part of the Roadmap to Health Equity Project, the market is located in the former New Deal grocery store on Livingston Road. Beneta Burt, project director, said that grant funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation allows the farmers market to offer fresh produce from a cooperative of local farmers at discounted prices.

Oleta's Gifts, Greeks and Baskets

In a gray two-story building off Highway 51 in Ridgeland just below a comic book store sits a shop that celebrates the history of African American fraternities and sororities.

Business Round Up

Jamie Woods, 36, wants to help small businesses succeed. On May 10, the Jackson Chamber of Commerce will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony for her new venture, J Woods Public Relations. Woods spent the last 10 years marketing behavioral health services for Pioneer Health Inc. and its physical therapy division, Medicomp Physical Therapy.

Jackson Ad Firm Featured in Book

The Ramey Agency has plenty to brag about. The Jackson-based branding and marketing firm boasts an impressive roster of clients, from Viking Range, to Millsaps College, to the Mississippi Museum of Art. Now, Ramey has one more accolade to add to its already full trophy shelf--a spot in "Where We Work," a book published by Harper Collins that showcases inspiring interior designs from workplaces around the world.

Business Round Up

Local celebrity chef and entrepreneur Nathan Glenn told the Jackson Free Press last week that he will no longer be The Auditorium's general manager. Instead, chef Nate Ballard will take over as the new general manager. Glenn will continue to co-own The Auditorium but said he will focus on operations at Basil's in Fondren, which he also owns. Next month, he will unveil his new website, Glennfoods.com, to promote all area Basil's Restaurants and the new Congress Street Bar and Grill--all owned by family members.

Business Accelerator Hopes to Speed Entrepreneurs

A new collaborative venture run by Jackson's New Horizon Ministries seeks to promote entrepreneurship and develop the city's existing small businesses. The Jackson Business Accelerator will connect potential entrepreneurs and current business owners with resources, program manager Michael Harris said at a press conference this morning.

Medical Mall Pitches Projects

The Jackson Medical Mall Foundation has several large economic-development projects pending, but Hinds County appears unable to support them, for the moment. Primus Wheeler, executive director for the foundation, asked the county Board of Supervisors at a work session this morning for $1.8 million to support an expansion on the Medical Mall's northern end. The Board has already allocated $2 million in bonds that would be its most likely source of funding, to another project.

Jackson Business Round Up

The success of last month's "Downtown After Dusk" event in the courtyard of Underground 119 has secured a new tradition in Jackson. Julie Skipper, one of the organizers, said today that the event will not conflict with "Fondren After Five" in the future. The next "Downtown After Dusk" will take place May 13 starting at 5 p.m. in front of the new Congress Street Bar and Grill on the corner of Congress and Amite Streets. The event is sponsored by Downtown Jackson Partners, the Jackson Convention and Visitor's Bureau, YP Alliance, Jackson Downtown Neighborhood Association, Underground 119, Entergy and the Jackson Chamber of Commerce. "The event is a way to get people to support business owners downtown and get people to stay downtown after work," Skipper said. "We were overwhelmed in a good way, it was a great, diverse crowd. ... We were expecting 300 people, and 600 showed up."

Smoothie Bar Promotes Healthy Living

When Sameerah Muhammad was walking through the Jackson Medical Mall last summer, she craved a smoothie to accompany her morning workout. "I saw that there were different vending stands, but there wasn't a fresh fruit smoothie bar," she says. Less than two months later, Muhammad's urge was satisfied when she opened Bottoms Up Fresh Fruit Smoothie Bar.

Chronicling Jackson's BOOM

It just occurred to me when I sat down to write this that the Saints won the Super Bowl within weeks of the King Edward re-opening--after both had suffered roughly four decades of discontent. I guess the Saints and King Eddie were using the same cold month in hell to make a few "never gonna happen" things ... happen.

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