It’s nowhere near an exaggeration to say that Hattiesburg wouldn’t be the city it is today without the influence and vision of Rob Tatum.
As a local developer, Rob has been influential in some of the Hub City’s most important revitalization projects during the last several years, including The District at Midtown, the Hub City Lofts and The Claiborne at Hattiesburg. For those accomplishments – and the many other contributions Rob and the Tatum family have made to Hattiesburg – Rob has been named the PineBelt NEWS 2018 Person of the Year.
Beginnings
Rob is one in a long line of Tatums in Hattiesburg – a lineage which began when his great-great-grandfather, Willie Sion Franklin Tatum, moved to the city from Tennessee on Jan. 4, 1893. W.S.F and his wife, Rebecca Ann O’Neal, and their son, West O’Neal, decided on the move after W.S.F. purchased some Mississippi timber lands for $1.25 per acre.
Two years later, on May 30, 1895, W.S.F and Rebecca gave birth to twin sons, Will and Frank.
After the twins were born, W.S.F. continued his sawmill operations in Hattiesburg, along with trading in timber and timber lands. He formed the Tatum Lumber Company, which operated from 1893 to 1938, as well as the Bonhomie & Hattiesburg Southern Railroad, which was owned by the Tatum family from 1925 until 1953.
Tatum Lumber Company, which acquired B&HS Railroad to transport timber from the company’s land in the Beaumont area to its sawmill south of Hattiesburg, boasted railroad connections that extended through 50,000 acres of timber in Forrest and Lamar counties, as well as 13,000 acres in Greene County.
W.S.F. served as vice president of the First National Bank of Hattiesburg, which was organized in 1901, before being elected in 1922 as mayor of Hattiesburg. He won the election with 1,076 votes over his opponent Archie Fairley, who garnered 369 votes.
During his time as mayor, W.S.F. turned the first shovel of dirt on the Saenger Theater, the construction of which began in 1929 for $200,000. He also lobbied for a new $100,000 library for the city, which was completed in 1930, and dedicated the Hattiesburg Municipal Airport on Sept. 23, 1930.
He served as mayor until 1936, when he was defeated by Travis H. Boykin. The next year, he retired from his political career at the age of 79.
W.S.F. died on Oct. 7, 1949, at 91 years old, and left his business interests to West, Will and Frank. He was survived by his second wife, Ella O’Neal Perkins, along with his three sons, six grandsons, four granddaughters and 12 great-grandchildren.
WSF Tatum Boulevard, a prominent thoroughfare in Hattiesburg that is now the site of N.R. Burger Middle School and Presbyterian Elementary School, still bears his name today.
Frank’s wife went on to give birth to John Merl Tatum, Rob’s grandfather. John Merl was the father of Robert O’Neal Tatum Sr. – better known as Bobby – who is Rob’s father.
Early years
Robert O’Neal Tatum Jr. was born Aug. 4, 1979, at Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg to parents Bobby and Kim Tatum. Rob attended Hattiesburg High School, where he was a first baseman on the team that won the 1997 State Championship.
While in high school, he took theater classes under former teacher Michael Marks, who recently retired as the public relations coordinator for the same hospital in which Rob was born. Rob also was on the school’s swim team, and played a role in the Hattiesburg High School musicals “The Wiz” and “Guys and Dolls,” which was featured on the international broadcast of The American Teacher Awards.
After graduating from Hattiesburg in 1997, he went to the University of Mississippi and earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with an emphasis in Managerial Finance and Investment Analysis.
From there, Rob attended the AB Freeman School of Business at Tulane University in New Orleans, where he received his Masters of Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance and Management and graduated as a Beta Gamma Sigma member.
Rob and his wife, Shay, have four children – daughter Addison, a 12-year-old seventh grader at PCS; daughter Rhodes, 10; daughter Ann Frances, 8; and son Luke, 2. Rob has two brothers, Craig and Cullen.
Craig attended Mississippi State University on a baseball scholarship and majored in banking and finance. He serves as President and Chief Operating Officer for CR Properties, which he founded with Rob in 2013 as a Hattiesburg real estate development company specializing in acquisition, redevelopment and construction of modern multi-family apartment homes, luxury condominiums, mixed-used development and senior living communities.
Craig was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds as a catcher in the third round of the 2004 Major League Baseball draft before being claimed off waivers by the Baltimore Orioles in November 2009.
He was also claimed off waivers by the Houston Astros, Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees before retiring from professional baseball in 2013.
“It’s been fun to partner with my brother,” Rob said. “We hold each other accountable – we don’t always have the same views, but when we see things differently, it’s great to have somebody to keep you in check and keep you in balance.
“He is more in the operational side, and I’m more in the financial, big-picture side. I think it’s good to have two different views, and we have good, healthy discussion and nothing’s ever personal between us. I think having that guy to keep you in check is a great reason for our success.”
Cullen, Rob’s youngest brother, has an MBA degree and a law degree, and is looking to get into his own real estate ventures.
“W.S.F. Tatum came here to cut trees over 100 years ago,” Rob said. “I think through his generation and my grandfather’s generation and my father’s generation – so I’m fourth generation here – I think that they set good examples for me.
“I look at my dad and all that he’s done through the businesses that he’s started or bought through the years – in the ‘80s, he did buy several businesses through the family that were struggling or needed capital investments and he stepped in and turned them around, like the Merchants Company and Mississippi Tank. My great-grandfather’s generation kind of took over Wilmut (Gas) from a failing gas utility and turned it around, so I think that they laid a lot of groundwork for us. My brother and I had a lot that we could be proud of at an early age, but we also took that as a great responsibility and worked hard to continue our family legacy.”
Hub City Lofts
In the summer of 2013, Rob and his business partner, Daniel Jussely, began the Hub City Lofts project, which entailed renovation of the historic Carter and America buildings downtown, both of which are more than 100 years old.
The America Building, which was formerly named the Ross Building, was constructed in 1907 by Hattiesburg architect Robert E. Lee at the corner of Front and Short streets. The building now features 20 apartments, including four studio apartments, eight one-bedroom apartments and eight two-bedroom apartments ranging from 581 to 1,467 square feet.
The America Building also offers 4,052 square feet of commercial space on the first floor – some of which the Hattiesburg Arts Council has used as its smART Space.
The Carter Building was constructed in 1904 at 501 Main St. and named for John Prentiss Carter, who served as Mississippi Lieutenant Governor from 1904 to 1908.
The Carter now has 32 apartments, with eight studio apartments, 13 one-bedroom apartments and 11 two-bedroom apartments ranging from 566 to 1,181 square feet. Approximately 8,658 feet of commercial space is offered on the first floor of the building.
All 52 of the buildings’ total apartments are currently occupied.
“In downtown, there were several vacant buildings that people have tried to develop through the years, and it never quite made it over the (hurdles),” Rob said. “One of my really good friends, Sam Sackler (of Sacks Outdoors), came to me and said ‘Hey man, you’ve got to take a look at this.’”
“So he brought that idea to us, and we were in the apartment business, so we partnered with a guy who had done some historic rehab before. So I feel like we put the right team together to get that done. We’re still convinced that there are opportunities downtown, and there’s a need for more apartments.”
The Claiborne at Hattiesburg
In 2014, Tatum and Jussely completed Phase 1 of The Claiborne at Hattiesburg – then known as The Whispering Pines Master Development – a new retirement community on Veterans Memorial Boulevard. That phase included the 70,000-square-foot Claiborne Memory Care and Assisted Living Facility, which welcomed its first residents in October of that year.
The facility offers 44 assisted-living units and 24 memory care units, along with a movie theater, dining rooms, coffee shop, library, game room and ice cream parlor.
Phase 2 of The Claiborne, which opened in 2015, offers132 individual, independent-living apartments for seniors 62 and older, as well as a 7,000-square-foot clubhouse and a pool.
Phase 3 consists of a 12-bed nursing home, while Phase 4 will entail a 280,000-square-foot mixed-use development with possible grocery stores, banks, hotels, drug stores and single-living family units.
The Claiborne at Hattiesburg is one part of a master plan that was developed for the Veterans Memorial corridor by the Tatum family in the early 1990s. That plan also included Presbyterian Christian School, Timberton and the YMCA.
“When they started that, Veterans was a two-lane road,” Rob said. “We owned the land through the family through the years, and they worked hard and were patient to make sure that master plan was put together.
“So ultimately, there’s leaders in my family who have set good examples and led before me, and I’ve had the opportunity to pick that up in my generation, along with Craig and others.”
The District at Midtown
Rob’s most recent – and perhaps most game-changing – project is The District at Midtown, a $35 million mixed-use development at the former site of the Elam Arms dormitory and parking lot off Hardy Street. The District features 17,451 square feet of restaurant space, including eateries like PYRO’s Fire Fresh Pizza, Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, Taziki’s Mediterranean Café and Rock N Roll Sushi.
The area also boasts 12 luxury condos and 23,958 square of retail space, featuring shops like 5 Star Nutrition, AT&T, Hancock Bank and South Boutique.
The District at Midtown also allowed Hattiesburg restaurateur and author Robert St. John to expand his culinary empire with the opening of The Midtowner and Midtown Donuts. The Midtowner serves breakfast and plate lunch items, while Midtown Donuts specializes in small-batch, specialty donuts.
“I’ve been working on this for 10 years – heavily for five – and signed the lease on (The Midtowner) over two years ago,” said St. John, who also owns Purple Parrot Café, Branch, Ed’s Burger Joint, Tabella, Crescent City Grill and Mahogany Bar. “Ten years ago, we were looking at a different location and it never felt right until Rob Tatum approached me on this project.”
The District at Midtown also boasts Mississippi’s first Hotel Indigo, a boutique hotel with locations in cities such as New York, Bali, Hong Kong and Warsaw. The five-story hotel, which is located at the corner of South 31stAvenue and Chevy Chase Drive, offers 100 rooms with décor that pays homage to the Hub City’s timber and rail industry, as well as the University of Southern Mississippi.
Each room features a portrait of W.S.F. Tatum.
Guests can also visit Brass Hat, Hotel Indigo’s restaurant/bar, which is reminiscent of a 1930s railroad dining car. The menu at Brass Hat focuses on tapas, small plates and specialty items.
The District was undertaken with Rob and Craig, along with David Oliver, Joel Ingram and Hattiesburg architect Larry Albert. The District at Midtown added approximately 200 new jobs to the area.
The project got its official start more than three years ago, when officials from the University of Southern Mississippi accepted Requests for Proposals for the land off Hardy Street. Rob then laid out plans for the site, and construction began in February 2017.
“(Hattiesburg architect) Larry Albert came to me before the District at Midtown project, and he really felt that a local person who really understood the dynamics of the city was the one who needed to do the midtown project,” Rob said.
“I do think that because of all the intricacies of the zoning, there’s a lot of people who would have given up and walked away, but we care about our community and wanted to do it the right way. We wanted to do what the vision of what midtown was from the start, from all the investors who put together the whole midtown overall project.”
More downtown projects
Officials are currently in the process of finishing a new $23 million Regions Bank mortgage operations facility in Hattiesburg, which is scheduled to open in the first quarter of next year. The new facility will initially house 320 employees who will relocate from two of Regions’ three current downtown Hattiesburg facilities.
Once that happens, Rob will purchase two of the vacated downtown buildings and lease them back to the bank while construction of the new facility is underway. His initial plans are to turn the Forrest Tower and Kress buildings into mixed-use facilities, with mainly studio and one-bedroom apartments along with commercial/retail space.
“You’re going to see fresh capital deployed in downtown Hattiesburg with what (Rob) plans to do with these buildings,” said Greg Garraway, South Mississippi president for Regions Bank. “Everything there is positive for downtown as well.”
Accolades and awards
Rob certainly has the pedigree for his endeavors around Hattiesburg.
That includes being a graduate of the Mississippi Economic Council’s Leadership Mississippi, as well as membership in the Southern 7 Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization. He also serves on the board of directors for his family businesses, including the Merchants Company and Mississippi Tank Company.
In addition, Rob serves as a deacon at First Presbyterian Church, serves on the board of the Historic Hattiesburg Downtown Association and was the sole owner of Tatum Capital LLC before forming CR Properties.
During the course of the past 12 years, Rob has been a principal in the development and ownership of more than 1,400 apartment rental units, more than 850 senior living units and several mixed-use developments.
Rob was honored last year with Sales and Marketing Professionals’ Bud Kirkpatrick Practitioner Award, which recognizes excellence in sales, marketing or civic engagement.
In May, Rob and Craig were presented with the Small Business Leadership Award from William Carey University and the Area Development Partnership. The award, which was established in 1990, recognizes the contributions small businesses make to the economic, social and cultural life of the community.
Rob received another honor in October, when he was inducted as one of 14 into the inaugural Hattiesburg Public School District Foundation Hall of Fame during a two-day event.
For his most recent honor, Rob – along with Forrest County Circuit Court Judge Robert Helfrich – was named in late October as a recipient of the 40thHub Award during a ceremony at Lake Terrace Convention Center. The Hub Award recognizes individuals who make outstanding contributions to the local community and demonstrate a commitment to excellence and dedication to the public good.
He received the award Nov. 8 during a ceremony at Lake Terrace Convention Center.
“When I first found out about it, I was extremely surprised, but extremely honored and humbled,” Rob said. “It’s also a lot of stress and pressure, because I’m 39 years old and I have a long career ahead of me, so it kind of re-energized me.
“It made me want to keep working hard to keep giving back to our community that’s given me so much. The people who have received it before me have obviously done great things for the city, and I feel like through what we’ve been able to accomplish with CR Properties that we’ve done a lot of good for Hattiesburg. But we’ve still got a long way to go and a lot more good things to do.”
Why Hattiesburg?
Although the Tatums do projects in other states – including Louisiana, Georgia and South Carolina – Hattiesburg is the place Rob will always call home.
“Our city’s always been good to us, and it’s where we’re raising our families,” he said. “People look at us and think that we were just given things, and I think that there’s plenty of people in successful third- and fourth-generation families that have kind of sat back and taken a handout.
“But we were determined that was not going to be who we were – we were going to carve out our own name and make this place better than we found it.”
And although Rob would like to see his children stay in Hattiesburg, he’ll encourage them to find their own path – whether that be in the family business or elsewhere.
“When I was growing up, my dad was third-generation in the business, and the family had gotten big,” Rob said. “He pushed me from a very early age to find my own niche and do my own thing. So Craig and I are now kind of first-generation for CR Properties, and for the family side, I would love for (my children) to be in Hattiesburg. I think there’s a lot of great opportunity in Hattiesburg, and I think the sky is looking up for Hattiesburg.
“By the time my kids’ generation is older, Hattiesburg will be totally different than the Hattiesburg I grew up in, and I think it will change for the better. I’d hope that I’ll be able to work with some of my children, if that’s what they want to do, but I’m never going to push them to make them to come back and work for the family. I want them to carve out their own niche and do whatever they think is right. I follow the philosophy of making the world a better place, and I hope they do the same.”
