The day former Mayor Chokwe Lumumba died in February, he had a meeting scheduled with Costco to discuss development of the big-box retailer in Jackson. While in the hospital, the mayor worried about missing the meeting because he knew how important it would be to bring the top retailer to his city, his son told the Jackson Free Press today.
Mayor Tony Yarber is working towards bringing a Costco to Lakeland Drive—the same location former Mayor Lumumba had discussed but never made public. Antar Lumumba is in full support of a plan to bring Costco to Jackson, just as his father had planned.
Although Jackson’s Planning Board voted yesterday against rezoning the area to allow for development of a Costco, Yarber pledged to continue the fight to get a Costco near the intersection of Lakeland Drive and Interstate 55, despite some opposition of community members and directors of nearby museums.
Antar Lumumba, whose father was the first from Jackson to make contact with Costco, told the JFP that Costco has chosen the location on Lakeland Drive after researching the traffic of the area and calculating the profits it would bring.
“If they’re going to be in Jackson, that’s where they demand to be,” Lumumba said today.
Those who are not willing to make changes to the Lakeland Drive site in order to obtain a Costco are, Lumumba said, “holding the city hostage.” Lumumba ran against Yarber to fill his late father’s mayoral seat earlier this year.
Fondren resident Jo G Prichard hopes the city will find a way to meet the needs of the area, keep green space and bring Costco to Jackson simultaneously. He said it would be a hard decision to bring Costco to Lakeland Drive if the city planned to wipe out the entire character of the area, but a compromise to put it there would create a “win, win” situation.
“Jacksonians need to take every reasonable and even a few difficult steps to land Costco and give our city a major shopping and sales tax plus,” Prichard said.
Prichard said the sales-tax boost that the big-box store would provide to Jackson, considering that many retailers in the area are outside city limits, is reason alone to make a place for Costco here.
The Jackson City Planning Board voted against the city’s comprehensive zoning proposal for 50 acres of land surrounding Lakeland Drive at the Interstate 55 intersection on August 27. The proposal would have changed the land from special-use zoning to either community mixed use or C-3 commercial-use zoning.
The city proposed the rezoning after Issaquah, Wash.-based Costco took interest in building on Lakeland Drive, and the city wanted the retailer on that land.
Community members, led by attorney Thomas Starling, voiced concerns over commercialization of the area, which is now used by the city for parks and museums. Rick Cleveland, Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum director, and Susan Gerrard, Mississippi Children’s Museum director, both spoke on behalf of the LeFleur Museum District, a partnership between four museums established this year. Both expressed concerns about how rezoning the area for commercial purposes would affect the new district.
A major topic of discussion during the meeting surrounded the letter from Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, which stated that a change in use of the land, which was deeded to the city specifically for parks more than 50 years ago, would trigger a reversion provision, allowing the state to take back control of the land.
Board member Jim McCraw asked, “Can we rezone someone else’s property?” Zoning administrator Ester Aisworth responded that the city is allowed to rezone the area in the case of a comprehensive zoning, like the one they proposed.
Ainsworth clarified that the reversion does not apply to rezoning but to use, and that the board was only voting on August 27 to determine the zoning classification of the land. The city reassured the board that community mixed-use zoning and C-3 zoning both still allow for parks in their classification.
That prompted Starling to ask, “Why wouldn’t we leave it the way it is?”
In a written response to the decision, Mayor Tony Yarber said he will continue to fight to make necessary changes to the land in order to obtain a Costco for the city.
“The City of Jackson is not deterred by the action of the Jackson Planning Board. The responsibility of the Planning Board members is to consider what was before them, which was rezoning. However, use was made the issue, and that was inappropriate. The request for rezoning would have allowed for the progressive movement of the City of Jackson for the betterment of our city and its citizens, while preserving quality of life,” Yarber wrote in the statement.
Opponents argued that rezoning the area for commercial use could prompt the city to commercialize the area, which could trigger the reversion.
The mayor also said that the state’s position on the Lakeland Drive land is incorrect.
“The secretary of state is mistaken in his assertion, as the 313 acres was parceled off many years ago, with specific parcels being deeded to the state of Mississippi for non-park purposes. Therefore, it is the City’s position that the issue of the reverter may have been waived and is now moot,” Yarber wrote.
Board member Samuel Mitchell motioned to rezone the area from special-use zoning to community mixed-use zoning, which is a lower-intensity classification that allows for less intrusive uses of the land than C-3, but only one other board member, Bennie Richard, voted with him. The vote was 3-6 with one abstention from the 15-member board. Only 10 members were present.
Approximately 59,000 vehicles travel through the Lakeland Drive and Interstate 55 intersection each day, and the addition of a big-box retailer could increase the congestion along the thoroughfare. But it is precisely the Lakeland Drive traffic that makes it a desired location for Costco, which plans to build its first store in Mississippi.
Initially, Costco, one of the top three largest retailers in the nation, reportedly showed interest in three potential locations on Lakeland Drive—one in Jackson and two in Flowood. However, the big-box retailer is unlikely to choose to develop on either of the Flowood sites because Rankin is a dry county. Liquor is a crucial source of revenue for Costco. A Jackson location also means that the city would benefit from its sales-tax collections, which some see as a boon after Sam’s Club’s decision to move to Madison.
In the world of big-box retailers, Costco is considered the best when it comes to employment treatment and satisfaction. The jobs site Glassdoor conducted an employee survey this summer that, as reported by The Huffington Post, ranked Costco only slightly behind Google for companies with best employee compensation and benefits. CEO and President Craig Jelinek is publicly in favor of a national minimum wage of $10.10 and said in 2013 that Costco has a “starting hourly wage of $11.50 in all states where we do business.”
Glassdoor reported that Costco cashiers makes $15.20 an hour on average, while they average $9.37 an hour at Sam’s Club and $8.18 an hour at Target. And about 88 percent of Costco employees have company-sponsored health insurance.
In an interview last week, Mayor Tony Yarber made it clear that he wants the Costco on that site and that developers had found a way to build Costco without tearing down Smith-Wills Stadium.
The Costco would replace the nearby baseball field, which Yarber said is inadequate and lacking resources. Murrah High School currently uses the field.
Yarber said then that he is doing everything he can to make sure “Jackson gets what it deserves, and in this case, that’s a Costco.”
Clarification: We have edited the story to reflect that Antar Lumumba has not seen the mayor’s current Costco plan, so he could not express support of it specifically, but he does support Costco locating on Lakeland Drive.
Previous Comments
Jackson NEEDS to make this happen…we have to win one…this Costco is coming and it needs to be in Jackson, not Flowood, not Madison. IMHO, It is in best interest of the city to develop that corridor commercially due to the traffic count and central location. This location is logical, given the commercial development of The District at Eastover, and proximity of Fondren across the interstate. If there had been more widespread knowledge of the meeting, possibly more that just those sitting on the property in question would have attended with differing viewpoints.
#6638 | Author: alexnever | Date: Aug 28 2014
Hilarious. Now that the former Mayor wanted it there, the JFP will continually push for the development despite how the immediate local citizens feel about the project and also Todd and Donna’s editorials bashing big box stores. And to try to compare the development of the District at Eastover and Fondren (literally a locals paradise) to a wholesale food club is mind boggling. Nothing says bulk mayonnaise like Baker Donelson, right?
#6639 | Author: robbier | Date: Aug 28 2014
Actually, robbier, neither Todd nor I have decided whether we think it makes sense in that space or not. The Lumumba administration hadn’t talked to us about it then, or shared details, and the current administration has just started talking about it, and hasn’t shared specific plans, yet. It’s a complicated issue, and we’re trying to report every side we can of it rather than choosing one, at least until we have enough information to take an editorial position, which we may not do. As for big-box retailers, no, we’re not fans of them in general. We are on record saying—I believe Todd might have in a publisher’s note once—that Costco is better than most, especially those out of Bentonville. So, I’m a bit surprised that you’re deciding to go after us for reporting various sides on this. Sounds like you’d like us to crawl on board one of the wagons and just stay there and ignore the others. That’s not how we roll. It’s also silly to charge that we would choose a side on something just because it’s what Mayor Lumumba would have done. We disagreed with him on many things, including that he should be mayor! One thing we miss about him is how he invited dissent and would listen and discuss issues intelligently even with detractors without taking it personally—a quality that many people, including our staff, came to appreciate about him during his too-short tenure as mayor. We miss him, even as we didn’t agree with him on everything. He was rather a pleasure to disagree with because he had enough self-esteem not to take it personally.
#6642 | Author: Donna Ladd | Date: Aug 28 2014
*Antar Lumumba, whose father was the first from Jackson to make contact with Costco, told the JFP that Costco has chosen the location on Lakeland Drive after researching the traffic of the area and calculating the profits it would bring* During his last State of the City address, I remember Harvey Johnson saying he sent materials to Costco to try to get them to locate in the Sam’s building when they leave it for Madison.
#6643 | Author: goldeneagle97 | Date: Aug 28 2014
*During his last State of the City address, I remember Harvey Johnson saying he sent materials to Costco to try to get them to locate in the Sam’s building when they leave it for Madison.* That does seem like a logical conclusion that many of us might wish Costco would reach.
#6644 | Author: Todd Stauffer | Date: Aug 28 2014
The problem with that conclusion is you’re assuming Sam’s is willing to sell the building to Costco once they leave. Sam’s is on the record as saying they typically don’t sell vacant properties to their competitors.
#6646 | Author: johnnieb6 | Date: Aug 28 2014
Its very frustrating to see how difficult the city and Costco are being. First thing – placing a Costco in the Smith Wills location is terrible for logistics – considering how terrible traffic flow is to the burbs. Second its terrible for aesthetics in that area, placing a big box store in that location. Look at West Jackson and now North Jackson – when it comes to former Sam’s, Wal-Mart, Gayfers, and Sack & Save locations. We have vacant retail properties all over the city and the real estate companies that hold them are barely able to keep up the maintenance. The primary focus should be to rehab those properties. That’s why it makes perfect sense to simply use the Sam’s location on Old Canton Court. What’s so ironic about Sam’s closing the county line location – it does way more business than the Rankin County location? Anywho – I hope common sense prevails and Costco simply moves to the county line location.
#6647 | Author: Duan | Date: Aug 29 2014
I wonder if the Sam’s Club building at Ridgewood Court has an unexpired lease with or is separately owned by Wal-Mart, who typically restricts how its former sites can be acquired and used by potential competitors. Costco is a direct competitor to Sam’s.
#6648 | Author: JLucas | Date: Aug 29 2014
Cotsco is good for Jackson. Jobs good paying jobs for citizens. I am 1000 per cent for this project. I wish those who sit on these boards would come down sometime to ask what do the people want ? Who am I serving?
#6649 | Author: zacksgrny | Date: Aug 29 2014
Anna Wolfe writes: > The vote was 3-6 with one abstention from the 15-member board. Only 10 members were present. As far as I’m concerned, a 3-6 vote on a 15-member board tells us very little. It sounds like they could hold the vote on a different date and get a completely different result.
#6650 | Author: Tom Head | Date: Aug 29 2014
Ah, didn’t know that. No wonder I love that corporation so much! They’d rather leave a retail space empty and see the area around it decline then have a potential competitor in a location that they’ve given up on. Classy.
#6651 | Author: Todd Stauffer | Date: Aug 29 2014
That’s why Harvey Johnson is the FORMER mayor.
#6669 | Author: javadanny | Date: Sep 3 2014
