Jackson council approves rezoning near Metrocenter despite developer’s unpaid taxes
The Jackson City Council voted 6-0 on Monday to rezone parcels behind the Metrocenter Mall from mixed use to industrial, moving a rezoning request by out-of-state businessman Christopher Jones closer to fruition despite questions about his ownership of the land, according to city records and the Hinds County landroll.
Jones, a South Carolina businessman who operates BioCrete Global Manufacturing, has said he plans to build a small facility to manufacture recycled plastic foam and concrete blocks and has touted the project as a first phase of wider redevelopment for the area. Jones and Mississippi Today have said the project could create about 200 jobs; several of Jones’ trainees applauded after the council vote, Mississippi Today reported.
Two of the three parcels Jones sought to redevelop became state-owned, tax-forfeited property in 2023 after he repeatedly failed to pay property taxes, the Hinds County landroll shows, and the secretary of state’s office confirmed state ownership on Monday. Jones is set to lose the third parcel to the state this fall if he does not pay outstanding taxes, the landroll shows.
Jones says he paid part of the taxes and has pending litigation to regain title, and he has sued Hinds County and the state to reclaim the lots, Mississippi Today reported. Hinds County is not contesting the lawsuit, but the state attorney general’s office has opposed Jones’ claims. A March 6 motion by Nancy Morse Parkes, a special assistant to the attorney general, argued Jones “came to the Court with unclean hands,” saying he knew he would have to redeem the parcels or they would mature to the state, according to court filings cited by Mississippi Today.
Ward 5 council member Vernon Hartley told Mississippi Today he did not ask about Jones’ unpaid taxes because Jones included a warranty deed with his rezoning application. “We’re going to allow it to go until it doesn’t go,” Hartley said. Ward 2 council member Tina Clay said she was unaware of the delinquent taxes but said she still would have voted for the rezoning, saying, “we zoned the land, we didn’t zone him,” Mississippi Today reported. City zoning administrator Ester Ainsworth said the legal department spoke with Jones about the unpaid taxes but that the city’s information shows he owns the parcels and the ownership dispute “is something that’s going to have to be worked out in another realm,” she said.
Jones has argued he never received proper notice of tax sales and described the sales as an “adverse taking,” while landroll records show he paid about $1,900 on one parcel last fall but owed nearly $20,000 across the three properties. The parcels are lots of cracked concrete behind the shuttered Metrocenter, which opened in 1978 and closed completely in 2022 after decades of decline, according to reporting by the Clarion-Ledger and other outlets cited in local coverage.
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