City Judge Jwon Nathaniel is expected to hear Aug. 5 what the owner of a landmark downtown McComb property, the old JC Penney building, plans to do with it.
At issue is the future of the building — most recently the home of the Jubilee Performing Arts Center — at the corner of Main Street’s and Broadway’s Five-Points intersection.
City zoning director Henry Green recently said Tyrone Taylor of New Orleans, who purchased the building March 18 for taxes owed, was granted a 30-day reprieve by Nathaniel at the court’s July 1 session. The judge ordered Taylor to provide a structural engineering report on whether it’s feasible to resurrect the four-story building or demolish it.
Occupied for many years by Holmes Stationers and then by JPAC, the brick-façade building collapsed July 23, 2017, causing temporary closure of nearby businesses as officials sought to determine whether the damage was hazardous elsewhere.
Taylor has not responded to media inquiries about the property, which is part of the McComb Downtown Historic District.
If it were to be rehabilitated, Green said the city Historic Preservation Committee’s approval of plans would be necessary. Downtown McComb was granted historic district status in 2004.
If Taylor fails to move ahead with preservation or removal of the building, Green said the city will act to demolish it.
Also given a bit more time to make repairs was the former Enterprise-Journal building’s owner Hiram Smith. Some external boarding-up work was undertaken recently on its façade. The building is on the west side of North Broadway near the Trustmark National Bank building.
Smith said Wednesday that he’s unsure of the ultimate plan for the E-J building and a former insurance office next door, but he’s “making progress” updating the façade.
The newspaper vacated the building when it moved to a new facility west of Interstate 55 off Delaware Avenue in February 1987. The property deteriorated across the years and created an eyesore for its neighbors and the downtown area, which in recent years has seen some property owners’ efforts to revive the once-bustling shopping and professional office area.
The Penney building, constructed about 1920, originally housed the State Bank and Trust along with Jacob’s Theater. It hosting the national retail chain for decades before it moved to Edgewood Mall. The building’s Kramer Roof was the scene of large social gatherings and weddings across the years and at one time hosted a roller-skating rink.
No one was inside the building when it collapsed. The Jubilee Performing Arts Center was its final tenant and its owner, Terrance Alexander, relocated the school after the collapse.
In October 2021, he was accused of 10 counts of sex crimes against children. Five months later, the property was sold for taxes by Pike County.
Alexander pleaded not guilty last December and was due for trial May 17, but proceedings were rescheduled after he obtained a new attorney and got the case reassigned before Judge Michael M. Taylor.
