News

Developments rapidly becoming reality

January 26, 2006
By KIMBLER SLOAN Sun Staff Writer—THE NORTHSIDE SUN

A DIFFERENT KIND OF COMMUNITY is in the future for the Northside. Developers are creating new locales with old notions of what neighborhoods should be.

Several new urbanism and traditional neighborhood developments (TND) are currently under way on the Northside.

These developments are reviving people-friendly features that made communities of the early 1900s so appealing.

With public squares, neighborhood streets with sidewalks, retail stores and restaurants, these developments aren’t leaving anything to be desired by their inhabitants.

One of these developments is Township, which is a 95 acre mixed-use development on Highland Colony Parkway.

The Township offers 135 single family residential lots, approximately 150,000 square feet of retail space, approximately
250,000 square feet of commercial office space, two seven-acre lakes, four pocket parks and site amenities.

Much of the parkway’s development has been guided by the tenets of New Urbanism.

New Urbanism is a development philosophy which offers an alternative to suburban sprawl by providing housing, public spaces, shopping, work and recreation within a 10-minute walking distance.

Construction crews are about to commence work on an office building, according to Herring.

The mixed retail buildings are substantially leased out already and they are about to commence work on about 16
condos above the retail, as well as some additional townhomes.

“A number of homeowners have already moved in and we are about to build some additional single family homes,” he said.

ANOTHER IS THE Town of Lost Rabbit, a once undeveloped area on the Ross Barnett Reservoir in Madison County.

There are currently about a dozen homes under construction in the Lost Rabbit development, and another dozen are expected to begin over the next two or three months, according to Mark Frascogna, co-founder of Jackson based Neopolis Development, the developer of Lost Rabbit.

“Construction of phase two is currently taking place,” he said. “That part of the project is moving the development toward the marina and the village town center.

“We are expecting to complete that and have lots and homesites available in phase two by this summer.”

THE CONCEPT OF Lost Rabbit is a TND, which represents a return to proven architectural and town planning
principles that were started in Europe centuries ago.

Frascogna’s interest in traditional town planning began 35 plus years ago when he traveled to Europe and saw the
dramatic difference between pedestrian-based communities and how Jackson was developing.

Lost Rabbit is surrounded by the Natchez Trace on one side and 33,000 acres of water on the other, which is why
he knew it would be the perfect place, Frascogna said.

The 260-acre development will feature three neighborhoods laid out along three different planning traditions: the
Garden District, the Lakes District and a Town Center.

At the town center will be a harbor front square opening onto the marina with a view of the reservoir.

Mixed-use buildings, shops, restaurants and office uses will surround the waterfront and town center square. As it
develops, it will become the focal point for the community.

With flex buildings and upscale condominium buildings, residential living will be offered in and around the
town center.

HARBOR WALK, A multimillion dollar development, will cover more than 100 acres of waterfront property
along the Ross Barnett Reservoir. It will include more than one million square feet of retail, restaurant, office, hotel and
condominium space, and is in the early stages of development. The first residential building will house 147 condos.

The condos range from one bedroom to penthouses that are more than 3,000 square feet and are priced from $200,000 to over a million dollars.

Crews are currently preparing to begin work on the west face of the harbor, according to developer John Burwell.

There is a lot of infrastructure that has to be relocated before crews can start work on the hotel and condominium buildings, he said.

That includes getting rid of the riprap and putting up the clearing edges so that the boardwalk can be done because Burwell said crews have to work from the water out.

“There is not enough room to get back in the harbor once we start the office and condo buildings,” he said.

“So we are going to close the road to start work on the infrastructure for the poured in place piers and other elements sometime later this month.”

PHASE ONE WILL be a million square feet and will require the relocation of a tremendous amount of infrastructure that is in the wrong place and has to be moved, according to Burwell.

The overall completion date for the Harbor Walk development is the end of 2007, according to Burwell.

“The actual construction of the hotel, condos and office space will begin once we start on the bulkhead (retaining wall) over on the west side,” he said.

“We can’t do anything below the damn until we have finished the bulkhead work, but grade it and get it ready,” he said.

“And we can drill the pier work into the ground but to go vertically we have to finish the bulkhead work on the west side.”

AN URBAN DEVELOPMENT, which doesn’t fit into the TND or new urbanism concept is Fondren Place.

It is being constructed in an underutilized school building in the Fondren area.

Duling School is undergoing a revitalization and will re-emerge as Fondren Place, which will be a union of historic preservation and contemporary construction, according to developer Mike Peters of Peters Real Estate.

The estimated $25 million development will include space for retail and restaurants, as well as residential space, according to Peters.

“There will be a brand new building constructed on the corner of State Street that will include retail shops and restaurants on the ground floor and condos on the top floors,” he said. “Another new building will also be constructed on the corner of Old Canton Road.”

The new construction will be called the Commons, which will provide office and retail opportunities and the Flats at Fondren Place, which will have condominiums. The existing Duling school will be renovated into Duling Market, an
upscale retail market.

All of the students who attended daytime classes at Duling have been relocated to another school.

And the adult program will be relocated during the early part of February, according to Peters.

In the meantime, construction crews are working on the water and sewer and engineering aspects of the project.

ALTHOUGH THE ACTUAL construction and renovation are not under way, Peters has already begun taking reservations for the condos.

“People are putting up deposits,” he said. The condos will range from $200,000 and up.

Peters said he hopes to begin the real hard design work for construction of the apartments in the next 45 days.

“We will hopefully break ground this summer,” he said. “My guess is that this will probably be finished 18
months from then.”

He expects the project to be substantially completed in about two years.

PETER’S FIRSTURBANdevelopment, Fondren Corner, was and is so successful that he decided to develop Fondren Place.

“Fondren Corner showed us that there is obviously a market out there for people who want this,” he said.

“We are also doing this downtown and it is turning out to be hugely successful,” he said.

“Look all over the country. This is the trend that is taking place.”

Peters admits that he was a little apprehensive going into Fondren Corner because he didn’t exactly know who would live there or how it would happen.

“But look at it now,” he said, “it is unbelievable.”

Fondren Place is going to be an extraordinary development in the heart of Jackson, Peters said. “It is going to be a unique urban living development that is definitely new to Jackson, but not to other metro areas.”