- Video shows a walk through of downtown Jackson's City Center (former Masonic Temple, later owned by Vermeulen Furniture.)
- The City of Jackson took ownership of the building in 2017, and after a lack of interest from developers, they turned to the community to find out how they could use the space.
- Jackson's City Center will soon be transformed into a commercial kitchen incubator and event space.
Built in 1907 as the Masonic Temple, this building served as a community gathering place until 1987.
Vermeulen Furniture later owned the building for 20 years, leaving a decade ago, and this historic building has sat untouched ever since.
City of Jackson Public Information Officer Aaron Dimick shared, "There's just amazing potential in this building. It was built as a place for the community to gather and use, so it's exciting that we can continue that moving forward."
In 2017, the city took ownership, rescuing the building, giving it a new roof, and ensuring it was structurally sound.
Since then, due to a lack of interest from developers, the city decided to take matters into their own hands.
"Without the city stepping in, this building would continue to sit vacant and continue to crumble," said Dimick. "It's really great for us to step in and bring this historic resource back online because once a building like this is gone, you're never going to get it back."
The city decided to fill in a gap for small business owners by creating a food service training center, community incubator kitchen, and event space known as the City Center.
Dimick explained, "Essentially what a community incubator kitchen is, if you have a small, food-based business like cupcakes or butter, you can leave your home and come and get some space here that you rent out, and then that'll help you grow your business. Then, hopefully, your business will flourish, and you'll move into a storefront."
The city is using a $3.1 million allocation from city council and American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds to renovate the first and second floors and turn them into an event space.
Currently, that funding only covers the ground, first, and second floors. No plans have been made for the third or fourth floors, but according to Dimick, once the initial renovation is complete, they may search for tenants to fill that space.
"This is going to be a really great asset for the community as in a downtown community center, and it really helps us steer the development in downtown Jackson," said Dimick.
The city hopes this project will be complete by winter of 2025.
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