Jackson Celebrates

Following the Nov. 2 election, Jackson, Miss., voters will get something they wanted besides four more years of President Bush — they'll also get a new convention center.

On the ballot for Madison County was a hotly contested referendum for funding of a new 90,000 square foot, $67-million convention center. With 66 percent of voters approving of the proposed funding, the measure was safely beyond the 60 percent required to pass.

The decision follows more than a decade of efforts by the city to get a convention facility, and several months of sometimes heated public debate about the wisdom of spending money on a project that some believe is destined to fail.

City officials, including Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr., supported the proposal, saying they were tired of being the only state capital in the Southeastern United States without a proper convention center.

"It has severely limited the economic development of the city," said Kay Maghan, a spokeswoman for the Jackson Convention & Visitors Bureau. "A convention center brings people and money in and increases money on the tax roll."

The convention center's most vocal opponent was the Mississippi Hospitality & Restaurant Assn., which argued that the funding structure put undue burden on the state's eating and sleeping establishments and their patrons. The referendum proposed raising the restaurant tax in Jackson from 8 to 9 percent and the hotel tax from 8 to 11 percent in order to pay for the new facility.

"Some will claim that raising taxes and investing in coliseums and convention centers is investing in the future and will reap huge dividends down the road," read the MHRA's statement against the measure. "Unfortunately, history is playing out in front of our eyes and the financial impacts of these so-called investments are falling far short of projections."

The city, whose population in the 2000 U.S. Census was 202,062, has already begun construction on the 74,000 sq. ft. Mississippi Telecommunications Conference & Training Center, set to open next fall. The meeting facility, touted as high-tech and luxurious, has flexible conference, theater and reception space, but offers no dedicated exhibit space.

That will come in the form of a 60,000 sq. ft. exhibit hall and 30,000 sq. ft. ballroom in the proposed Jackson Convention Center. According to current plans, the center would be attached to the TelCom Center and only two blocks from a Marriott hotel that just completed an $11-million renovation.

A board of directors has been established to oversee management of the convention center, and the Jackson CVB would be in charge of operations. The bureau hasn't yet decided whether to hire staff or outsource day-to-day management of the facility.

Wanda Collier-Wilson, president of the Jackson Convention & Visitors Bureau said she believes voters supported the convention center, the subject of discussion and feasibility studies for nearly 15 years, because they understand it will help the city grow.

"The Capital City Convention Center is an economic development catalyst for our city, and voters recognized that," Collier-Wilson said. "There are a lot of positive things taking place in our downtown area, and I believe voters saw the convention center as another piece of the downtown puzzle."