City Council approves buying Airways Motel for men’s homeless shelter

The Jackson City Council met for a little less than an hour Tuesday morning, and most of their time was spent on two topics – Jackson Plaza and the men’s homeless shelter.

The agenda item in question regarding Jackson Plaza and the old Service Merchandise building Mayor Scott Conger approved the purchase of for $4 million from a $32 million fund balance at the time in December of 2022 was to enter into an agreement with JLL, a real estate service company, to do continued research on best uses for the land.

Councilman Larry Lowrance asked a series of questions about the project to get a better idea of how much money has been spent by the City so far for the project with City Planner Stan Pilant unable to hammer down specific amounts paid for certain actions or services.

Conger confirmed with Lowrance that services rendered in 2023 by LRK to mock up a master plan for the area that included a pair of hotels, an arena and convention center is different from what the City is asking JLL to do.

“LRK put together a master plan of possible things we could do, where JLL will do research about what can actually be done based on the market and the location itself,” Conger said after the meeting.

Since the initial announcement of the purchase of the land, Conger said the initial preliminary environmental testing has been done and brought back expected results, and the City, Community Redevelopment Agency and The Greater Jackson Chamber are working together to do a brown field assessment of the area to aid in better construction and to prepare for the coming demolition of the old Service Merchandise building.

“So JLL will figure out the ideal situation to demolish the building and prepare the land for the development,” Conger said. “And they’ll help in determining a developer, and that way, the obligation of development falls to a private developer and the City stays out of that business.”

The Council voted unanimously 8-0 to approve the agreement.

For the first time on Tuesday, Conger and the Council publicly acknowledged a sharp turn in handling the men’s homeless shelter.

The plan now is to buy the Airways Motel at the intersection of Airways Boulevard and the Highway 45 Bypass for a little more than $1 million for the purpose of putting the men’s homeless shelter there.

But before they voted, there were a few conversations that needed to be had.

The first one came from Councilman Richard Donnell, who asked City Innovations Officer Laurn Kirk a series of questions recapping the history of the project dating all the way back to December of 2020 when a homeless man froze to death in Downtown Jackson.

One question he asked Kirk was how much the City had spent toward the project when the shelter would be built on McCorry Street, and the answer was $260,000.

Donnell motioned to amend the motion and add the stipulation that half the $260,000 would be reimbursed by a group of local business owners that made their opinion known late in the process last spring that they wanted the shelter moved from Downtown because of the negative impact having so many homeless men in the area could have on business overall in the area.

No one seconded the motion, so it died at that point, but a passed motion like that would’ve been illegal.

There were a few more questions about the motel.

Information that came out during the discussion were that it was built in the 1960s. There’s little fear of any problems with asbestos in the building, because that becomes a concern only when the building is disrupted.

The building is practically move-in ready as soon as the current owner vacates. Conger did say there would probably be some cosmetic repairs needed, but other than that, the City should be able to make a quality decision on moving in after a walk-through with a third-party inspector. That will probably happen this month because the City has 30 days until Oct. 31, to do its due diligence.

Donnell did have questions about paying for the proposed bussing of people from the motel into Downtown to the services they need like RIFA, etc.

Conger said with the money they’re saving going with Airways instead of playing the projected $3.4 million for the original shelter that was set to be built on McCorry Street they’ll be able to pay for the JTA bus to bring people to Downtown.

“Since we had so much money already allocated to the project, then those funds will become part of what we were prepared to pay for anyway,” Conger said.

With 64 rooms in the motel, then the potential for people being served more than doubles as the original shelter was meant to serve about 25 men at a time.

After the meeting, Amy McDonald, the director of Tennessee Homeless Solutions, who will run the day-to-day operations of the shelter, said she had a conversation with Donnell after the meeting in which she explained the $260,000 spent on the project will not go to waste.

“That money was spent to prepare the land for housing in that lot on McCorry Street,” McDonald said later. “Because the money we spent was preparing the lot for a building there, and that will help in seeking funds from other sources because the land is more ready than most for a new structure.”

If the City still approves of the deal after the due diligence period, it will pay a little more than $1 million for the motel and take ownership of it on Dec. 2.

In other business, the Council approved the rezoning of 106 acres of land on North Parkway from agriculture to university district.

They approved the contract with PFM (Public Finance Management) to consult in financial planning for the City as it prepares to take on new debt to meet the capital needs of the City in the fiscal year.

They approved the contract for a consultant agreement regarding child savings accounts should the City want to invest in that with a local school district and/or business.

Attendance report: Julie Holt was the only Council member not in attendance this month.

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news