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Featured Project:
Downtown Hattiesburg, MS

The Downtown Hattiesburg Economic Enhancement Strategy was completed by HyettPalma. Known as “The Hub City,” Hattiesburg is located within an easy drive of Jackson, Biloxi, and New Orleans. In addition, Hattiesburg is home to the University of Southern Mississippi, is the seat of Forrest County, and enjoys a burgeoning medical community. Recently, the City has seen many new assets come “on line” community-wide. Now, the private and public sectors are turning their attention to Downtown’s enhancement. HyettPalma was retained to develop an economic enhancement strategy that would allow Downtown to leverage the private sector and public sector support — and investment — that is being focused on Downtown at this time.

The following is an excerpt from the Hattiesburg Downtown Economic Enhancement Strategy, which was written by HyettPalma. Shown below is the opening portion of the strategy which outlines Downtown’s current situation.

Downtown Hattiesburg
Economic Enhancement Strategy
Downtown Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is fortunate to have many, many attributes. These include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The public sector has been creating new “cornerstones” in Downtown, including the new library, the Forrest County Tax Facility, the renovated Saenger Theater, Town Square Park, and Veterans’ Park;
• Additional anchors are in place within Downtown, including City Hall, the County Courthouse and other County buildings, the Federal Building, and the post office;
• Projects are “in the works” that will result in additional Downtown cornerstones, including adaptive use of the old library building and of the depot building;
• Downtown enjoys the strong support of the Mayor and Council who have displayed the willingness to do everything within their power to strengthen Downtown — plus, this commitment is augmented by an excellent City staff;
• The County has shown an exceptional level of cooperation — much higher than that found in many County seats;
• Downtown enjoys the strong confidence of the local lending community;
• The administration of the University of Southern Mississippi has expressed an interest in having a Downtown presence;
• Relating to Downtown and its future, a harmonious relationship exists among the City, the County, the Hattiesburg Downtown Association, the university, area banks, and nearby neighborhood associations;
• Downtown has many “built-in” and nearby potential customers to draw upon, including Downtown employees, the users of Downtown’s anchors, nearby residents, and the university community;
• Physically, Downtown is fortunate to have a number of assets, including wonderful architecture, a local appreciation of historic preservation, recent and immaculately maintained streetscape improvements, and quality improvements made by the private sector;
• The seeds have been planted for creating a Downtown “theme” — with a strong local desire in place for more art-related uses/activities and local consensus that Downtown is the appropriate location for those uses/activities; and
• There is a strong desire for more housing in and near Downtown — and an understanding of the importance and the impact such housing will have on Downtown’s future health.

These attributes all bode extremely well for Downtown. And, they afford the community a tremendous array of assets to build upon in creating a better Downtown Hattiesburg.

Shortcomings
At the same time, there are several characteristics which Downtown is lacking — characteristics which are essential in order to attain the community’s vision and move Downtown forward to a brighter future. These include the following.

• Despite excellent public improvements and maintenance, and high quality improvements by a handful of Downtown property/business owners, for the most part Downtown’s privately owned real estate is in need of reinvestment.
• Currently, Downtown is primarily a government, professional office, and banking center. These facilities bring a considerable number of employees and users to Downtown on a daily basis. However, Downtown’s sidewalks lack pedestrians since there are very few impulse-oriented businesses located within Downtown.
• Downtown’s anchors, while considerable in number, are scattered throughout Downtown making it difficult to create a synergy among these cornerstones and their users.
• Over the years, Downtown’s image has become somewhat tarnished as retail businesses, and their customers, left Downtown.

Economic Enhancement Strategy
The following strategy should be followed to build on Downtown’s attributes and mitigate its shortcomings:

• Create a distinctive economic niche for Downtown by building on its considerable anchors;
• Create districts within Downtown that allow Downtown’s anchors to be capitalized upon by linking them and leveraging their impact; and
• Take bold and aggressive actions to resolve the six key issues facing Downtown, which are:
  
  
  • The need to improve the condition of Downtown real estate;
  • The need to create and attract more impulse-oriented businesses within Downtown;
  • The need to build on the budding “theme” of Downtown as a center for the arts;
  • The need to ensure public safety within Downtown — in terms of both reality and public perception;
  • The need to more effectively market Downtown; and
  • The need to ensure that a management system is in place so that the community’s vision — and the economic opportunities facing Downtown — can be attained.