King Edward on the Rise
By WAPT Channel 16
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
King Edward on the Rise
June 20, 2007
Jackson attorney and developer David Watkins touted progress on the renovation of the dilapidated King Edward Hotel June 19, predicting the project will be finished by spring 2009. “I’m thinking sometime in April,” Watkins told a small crowd of reporters at Union Station, which is across the street from the hotel. “Between now and November, we’ve got teams working on design plans, architecture plans, specific engineering plans—everything needed to convert a building of this magnitude. We’re talking to the National Park Service, the Department of Archives and History. … We plan to have the project completed as much as possible by December 2008 in order to benefit from the (federal) GoZone (tax breaks).”
Reporters toured the 12 floors of the freshly cleared, asbestos-purged building. Watkins said work rews carted out 70 30-yard dumpsters of debris that have accumulated in the hotel since it closed in 1969. “I’m told we filled up a whole landfill,” Watkins said, adding that the renovated building will feature a 186-room hotel, along with 64 apartments and a restored parking garage. The final shape and size of the hotel is dependent upon whether or not King Edward investors acquire the neighboring Standard Life Building, which three groups of investors are pursuing.
The entire project will cost between $70 million and $75 million. Watkins said the building’s structure was “better than we’d expected.”
Mayor Frank Melton was at the announcement, embracing the development after two years of demanding the city subvert Watkins’ development plan and “implode” the historic building.
The mayor’s determination to destroy the building ran up against stiff opposition on City Council last year. When asked what had prompted his about-face on the development, Melton said: “I think it’s called indictments.”
“The city has to do everything it can to protect its investments,” Melton said. “I have full faith in (Watkins), and I’m very comfortable with him.”
By: JFP Staff on Jun 20, 07 | 3:40 pm
COMMENTS
Mayor Frank Melton was at the announcement, embracing the development after two years of demanding the city subvert Watkins’ development plan and “implode” the historic building.
I was tickled by how the mayor tried to take credit for the KEH project's progress. He basically said that all the noise he made sped up the process (think it was on WAPT), but a grant goofup under his administration actually slowed things down.
Posted by: L.W. on Jun 21, 07 | 10:25 pm
