Columbus Place developers request takeover of city street section
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – The facelift on the former Leigh Mall continues, and now developers have some more room to grow.
Hull Properties, which bought the historic Columbus retail center and has since dubbed it Columbus Place, recently went to the Columbus City Council with a request to take over a section of a city street that sits between Highway 45 and the shopping center.
The council voted unanimously to close and vacate right of way on the portion of Old Aberdeen Road that runs in front of Columbus Place.
The new space will allow Hull Properties to expand its footprint toward Highway 45, create out parcels for further development, and possibly create a new entrance to the property.
“To potentially be able to use that to recruit – turn into parcels where they can recruit other businesses and retail stores and possible restaurants and others to that area,” said Mayor Keith Gaskin.
Several years ago previous owners of the mall bought a strip of property along 45, and tore down a smaller shopping center and store with plans to create an entrance from the highway to the mall, but did not account for the city-owned street, and eventually abandoned that plan.
