Southaven this week approved an application for a tax incentive for a renovation project at 920 Stateline Road. The former El Patron Mexican restaurant building will be rehabbed and turned into an American Deli.
Planning Director Whitney Choat-Cook said the developers have been working with her office and the fire department to come up with a renovation plan to repurpose the structure rather than tear it down.
“It has been determined by the fire department that it can be renovated as opposed to being torn down,” Choat-Cook said. “That is the option they would like to go with.”
Chiat-Cook said developers will make use of credits under the city’s West End Tax Incentive Program to make interior structural improvements, have new roofing, new exterior painting, landscaping, and a resurfaced parking lot.
“It looks like this is about a $500,000 investment,” Choat-Cook said.
Mayor Darren Musselwhite said the investment represents another success story in their efforts to revitalize the original business district. He recently announced a new push by the city to stir up interest among developers and property owners to invest in the downtown area.
“Here we go, one by one” Musselwhite said. “It doesn’t happen overnight, but we have our incentive package that we are really trying to step up and market even more. We had the Wendy’s a few years ago. This building has been so many things over the years, so to have this kind of investment here is so good for our original business district and the West End. I just want to publicly thank the investors for doing this. We welcome American Deli there.”
Chiat-Cook said they had other developers look at the building before, but none wanted to put the kind of money into the building that it would need.
“There is a lot of work that needs to be done there,” Choat-Cook said. “Before this one even came into play, we had several others look at this but not wanting what was going to be required by the fire and building department. It’s an overhaul. It’s everything from new windows. There is a massive amount of plumbing and HVAC that has to be done. The parking lot is a mess. There is no landscaping. They have already taken off the front portion of the building so they can open it back up. It was a disaster in the interior.”
Choat-Cook said developers actually started working heavily on it prior to talking to her office. They put a stop on it to meet with the developers to see if the building was even worth saving.
“One of the investors has another business on Southview St. right behind it,” Choat-Cook said. “He found an outside investor to go in on it with him because he wanted to revamp it and make it an area for his employee to go. So it is a local investment.”
Musselwhite said it is a very worthy project and will add a lot to the area. American Deli specializes in burgers, wings, sandwiches, salads, subs, and gyros and has over 200 locations nationwide.
“And every incentive allowed by state law is in place to bring business back to our original business district,” Musselwhite said. “I think it is a great thing .”