Given the increased tourism and retail recently experienced in the Hub City – especially after the COVID-19 pandemic – officials from Visit Hattiesburg, the City of Hattiesburg and the Downtown Hattiesburg Association have spent some time trying to find ways to accommodate that growth.
Thanks to two Senate bills that were recently passed by the Mississippi Legislature and signed by Gov. Tate Reeves, Hattiesburg is now the recipient of a grant that will help fund an upcoming Hattiesburg Welcome Center right in the heart of downtown. The center is expected to open within the next two years in the former Motor Inn Service Station, located at 300 Hardy Street near the Hattiesburg Library.
“We saw this grant program as a perfect opportunity for us to create a Hattiesburg Welcome Center right at the gateway of downtown,” said Marlo Dorsey, executive director of Visit Hattiesburg. “This building will be right as you come into downtown, past the roundabout (on Hardy Street), and it will just really work to set the tone for being a beautiful, iconic gateway that will serve the entire city and the region.
“The whole purpose of this is to make sure that our visitors, as well as our residents, feel an immediate tie to our cultural and historic significance of placemaking and all the things that have had Hattiesburg what it is.”
Upon completion, the 8,000-square-foot building will focus on the works of local Mississippi artists, including murals and sculptures aimed at celebrating the area’s history, culture and contributions.
“It will be an artistic classroom, so to speak,” Dorsey said. “If we want to become a ‘City of a Hundred Murals,’ we felt like this was a great way to incorporate this vision into our décor for that.”
The facility will also feature a gift shop with selections from local artists, unique souvenirs and interactive guides with video kiosks that tell the story of Hattiesburg.
“We have a list of people that we’ve already kind of started getting stories from, where we can enjoy our history of people that are still here,” Dorsey said. “We want to make sure that people can come in and not only grab a brochure, but also watch videos and learn a little bit more about who we are and where we see ourselves going in the future.”
The two Senate bills that make the grant possible are as follows:
- Senate Bill 2696, which established the Mississippi Main Street Revitalization Grant program as an ongoing program under the state. That program provides funds through the Mississippi Development Authority for downtown revitalization projects in Mississippi’s local Main Street communities.
- Senate Bill 3056, which includes funding for 19 projects throughout Mississippi for a total of $6.972 million for the MMSRG program this year, as well as $500,000 to MMSA for statewide support and operations.
In addition to Hattiesburg, those 19 Mississippi communities include Amory, Biloxi, Booneville, Cleveland, Columbus, Crystal Springs, Greenville, Hernando, Moss Point, Natchez, Nettleton, New Albany, Pascagoula, Ripley, Saltillo, Senatobia, Vicksburg and Water Valley.
The state’s grant put forth $500,000 for the project, while the City of Hattiesburg has committed $100,000 toward the purchase of the building. Visit Hattiesburg has earmarked $100,000, and the Downtown Hattiesburg Association has set aside $50,000.
When the center is complete, officials from Visit Hattiesburg will move their offices to that new facility. In 2020, the organization moved to the Hattiesburg Train Depot from the Hattiesburg Visitors Center, after that site near Lake Terrace Convention Center was converted to a COVID-19 vaccination center.
Officials from the Downtown Hattiesburg Association also will move into the new location.
“So that will be our operational nucleus for all tourism-related things throughout Hattiesburg,” Dorsey said. “We also plan on having a conference room there and small meeting space, so if people want to be able to come in and visit here and use this great space to be able to meet, we’ll have that there as well.
“And because it’s our job to know all things about Hattiesburg – because we’re the officials marketing and destination management arm for the City of Hattiesburg – we will be doing architectural tours. It will also be the launch point for the arts history trail and the public arts trails, and we’ll also have golf cart tours out of there.”
Andrea Saffle, executive director of the Downtown Hattiesburg Association, said the new facility will be a boon to the area.
“I think it’s going to be great for downtown, and I think it’s going to be good for DHA to be under the same roof with Visit Hattiesburg,” she said. “We’ll be able to accomplish that much more for downtown.”
