Delta Business Journal: Grenada Is Getting A Facelift

By Larry Liddell – Photography by Austin Britt 

This story originally appeared in The Delta Business Journal

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Located 100 miles north of Jackson and 100 miles south of Memphis, Grenada is considered to be a Delta town, although part of Grenada County is positioned in hill country. I-55 is both a blessing and a curse to the town of 13,000 as traffic zooms by on the interstate while downtown dwindles. A lot of the population has left the area and a lot of the downtown buildings are left abandoned and neglected and crime has risen.
Nonetheless, a group of dedicated citizens have banded together to form The Grenada Downtown Redevelopment Project. This group is comprised of Deborah Bailey, Sabina Howell,  Girault  Jones,  Isabella  and Katrina Kinder, Allan Michael, Kevin Moore, Tonja Smith and Jan Walton have met every other Thursday since the inception of the project in April of 2016 to monitor and help guide the renovation along.
“My company itself has purchased nine buildings in downtown Grenada for the purpose of renovating and refurbishing,” Bailey says. “The First and Main Professional Building is a showcase for the Downtown District.”

Her company, Prevail Investments, is developing current vacant buildings to house a restaurant, a bakery, a bar & grill, artist live/work housing, rental apartments, office space for local nonprofits and commercial tenants and space for skill training. Incubators for small business, artisans and performance artists will also be created and a computer science program developed. Tenants will be a mix of owner occupied and third party.
The project will create 40 construction jobs and directly employ 82 owner occupied and third party tenants, including five full time-employees already in existence today. It will meaningfully increase prospective earnings through skills training and placement assistance for up to 20 students each year and provide marketing and sales outlets for 60 artisans, musicians, bakers and other professionals.
“Our Farmer’s Market, which is open every weekend now, creates opportunities for local growers by extending the market to a year-round format,” Bailey says. “This project will also create and help grow businesses that want to grow beyond sole proprietorship.”
Bailey admits there have been bumps in the road. “We’ve had to overcome them,” she laughs.
One of the hardest to overcome has been the failure of Main Street, Mississippi, to get on board.
“The organization is in transition right now,” she explains, “and is reorganizing. We took our project to Main Street, America, directly and feel confident in their support.”
Bailey, a New York real estate magnate, married a local Grenada businessman and moved here, fell in love with the South, and went right to work when presented with the project.

“She is the dynamo behind the redevelopment project,” Moore states flatly. “As a committee, we have worked hard, but she’s the engine that drives us forward.”
Moore is the major fundraising arm of the committee, according to Bailey, and says the group has raised “about $50,000,” so far. “We’ve just gotten started,” she says.”
Last month, the group staged a tour of the Grenada Downtown Historic District for those interested in seeing the progress.
“It was a rainy and cold Thursday evening,” Bailey recalled recently. “I thought, ‘Oh no, no one’s going to Show up for the tour.’”
To her surprise — and delight — 120 people brought their umbrellas and toured the District despite the weather conditions.
“That gives you some idea as to the interest in the project,” she smiles broadly.
Moore says that property values in Grenada haven’t changed much, but are beginning to show signs of life and tax credits are making things better for those willing redevelop property. “People are looking for ways to get more out of their property and this is an exciting way to get it done,” he points out. 

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