By: Shaunicy Muhammad, Mississippi Free Press
City of Jackson Planning and Development Director Jhai Keeton said during a press conference on May 1, 2025, that the City of Jackson needs additional funding to continue tearing down and clearing blighted commercial properties. “At the end of the day, the biggest challenge for us to better improve our demolition, our blight problem, is funding,” Keeton said. (Photo by Shaunicy Muhammad)
As the sounds of heavy machinery crashing into the building behind him vibrated across the air, City of Jackson Planning and Development Director Jhai Keeton shared his excitement.
“It’s great to hear the sound of progress behind us,” he said during a press conference outside the dilapidated old building that once housed the Mississippi capital’s Coca-Cola bottling plant on May 1. “We’re about 30 days out, hopefully, of this building being completely torn down.”
‘Growth and Opportunity in Our City’
The building, erected in 1949, sits on Highway 80 near the intersection of University Boulevard and has been long-abandoned, with shattered glass windows and a faded Coca-Cola logo on the outside walls.
The beverage company vacated the location for a larger building on an industrial parkway in Northwest Jackson in 2007. Clark Beverage Group, which now operates the Northwest Jackson location, announced a plan to build a new $100 million distribution center in Madison County in 2023.
The old Coca-Cola bottling plant in Jackson, Miss., was built in 1949. (Photo by Kristin Brenemen)
A community development group once ruminated over ideas for how to redevelop the Highway 80 location in Jackson. But finding developers willing to invest in the area proved to be difficult.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba and members of his administration look on as a contractor for the City of Jackson begins to demolish Jackson’s former Coca-Cola Bottling Plant on Highway 80 on May 1, 2025. (Photo by Shaunicy Muhammad)
As the property continued to sit abandoned, it became an eyesore along Highway 80, Keeton said Thursday. The derelict building is one of many on Highway 80 that are now relics of Jackson’s past when it was a booming economic hub.
However, Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba, who lost his bid for re-election during a primary election runoff on April 22, said on Thursday that the demolition will help pave the way for new economic growth. “Many of us have talked about what this area meant in its heyday when economic development was at its pinnacle. We talked about old developments such as the MetroCenter Mall and look forward to its next phase. The reality is, while indoor retail facilities are no longer the national trend, long thoroughfares where people invest in economic development are,” Lumumba said.
“There’s no reason that Highway 80 and Highway 18 can’t be corridors for economic growth and opportunity in our city,” the mayor continued.
‘The Biggest Challenge Is Funding’
It costs the City of Jackson $150,000 to demolish the old bottling factory, Lumumba said on May 1. He thanked the Jackson City Council for approving the budget to demolish dilapidated commercial buildings.
“For far too long, we’ve tried to stretch dollars between residential demolitions along with a few—maybe only a handful of—commercial demolitions over a long period of time. But this team has been aggressive,” the mayor said.
The City of Jackson plans to demolish at least 10 derelict commercial structures across the capital city, including the former Gipson Discount Foods grocery store directly across the street from the old Coca-Cola plant. That list also includes the former Hotel Oyo on Interstate 55, which a contractor for the City of Jackson began tearing down earlier this year.
The demolition of Jackson’s former Coca-Cola Bottling Plant on Highway 80 helps pave the way for new economic development in the area, Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba said during a press conference outside the dilapidated building in Mississippi’s capital city on May 1, 2025. (Photo by Shaunicy Muhammad)
The City now has 15 code enforcement officers to help in their continued efforts to remediate and prevent blight, Keeton explained on May 1.
However, he said there is still a need for additional funding to keep officers paid competitive wages and to continue tearing down and clearing the seemingly endless number of blighted structures across the city.
“Until we get budgets, until we get funding—whether that be from other legislators like Rep. Ronnie Crudup Jr., or if that’s from legislative requests that we make from the state, we need money,” he said, adding that the City is also working on improving their business procurement processes. “But at the end of the day, the biggest challenge for us to better improve our demolition, our blight problem, is funding. We have made those requests and we hope to capitalize on that.”