VIDEO: New Entertainment “Hub” Underway

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- The courtyard next to the Columbus Visitors Bureau sits empty. However, a three year plan is coming together to make it an outdoor entertainment hub.

Out of the two alleys that are connecting Catfish Alley to the courtyard, only one of them is accessible. But, that’s all going change.

“Really what this is, is a pedestrian improvement. It’s going to make two connections on each side of Jones’ Restaurant. The southern connection is in pretty good shape. It’s an old brick walkway, we’re gonna clean it up, shellac it, dress it up, make it look good in it’s current state. However, the north alley is really in disrepair,” says project manager Kevin Stafford.

So, on comes the renovations.

Project manager Kevin Stafford plans to pave the north alley walkway, connecting the courtyard to Catfish Alley.

The two alleys run along both sides of Jones Restaurant… A historic staple on the Columbus street.

Sisters, Connie Chalmers and Laura Jones Brooks took over the restaurant after their mother passed away.

Keeping the business open is important to their family.

“We plan to share, keep her legacy going and share the history as well as service the community, so that’s our goal,” says Chalmers.

The restaurant has been in business for over 60 years and the sisters hope the project will mean more customers.

“Hopefully when they’re coming through, they’ll stop at Jones Restaurant with the smell of the aroma coming through from this place, we look forward to that,” says Chalmers.

“With all the new renovation that’s gonna go on, that is surely going to increase the traffic that it is going to come through here from the welcome center and the convention center and all those things that are added, so we’re just all excited to be apart of this new development,” says Brooks.

The city is also building a landing to serve as a small stage for future events.

“It won’t rival anything we already have at the existing Riverwalk, or the amphitheater that’s currently being done, this is more of a community theater type stage, an out door small area. It won’t be able to handle anything major but it will be an opportunity to still have another quality of life type of event,” says Stafford.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation picked up most of the tab, the city and Columbus Visitors Bureau are paying the rest of the money.

“M-DOT has about two hundred and forty thousand dollars in it and the city and the CVB together have about seventy five thousand dollars in it so they’re getting about a three hundred sixty thousand dollar facility for seventy five thousand,” says Stafford.

As rough as the area may look right now, officials say the construction should be done between mid march to early April. They’re even hoping to host the Spring Pilgrimage, here, at this location.