Lawmakers tried to steer $2 million to Elvis-themed Tupelo hotel project tied to state official’s family

By Taylor Vance | Originally published by Mississippi Today

Mississippi lawmakers tried to shell out $2 million in tax dollars to help fund the construction of a private downtown Tupelo hotel project connected to a state official’s family, but Gov. Tate Reeves vetoed it. 

Tucked away in the Legislature’s $253-million “Christmas tree” bill to fund local projects across the state was a $2 million line item for the city of Tupelo to help cover costs associated with the Blue Suede hotel development project.  

But leaders in the city of Tupelo didn’t ask for the money, said they didn’t want it and don’t own the property in question.  

“That was not a request from anyone in the city of Tupelo administration or the City Council,” Tupelo Mayor Todd Jordan told Mississippi Today. “If we hadn’t known that’s what they were calling the project, we wouldn’t have known what that project even was.”

It was only after the Legislature passed the spending bill that some of the area’s lawmakers realized they had just authorized the state to send money to Tupelo for the renovation of a hotel owned by Joshua Brown, the son of Northern District Public Service Commissioner Chris Brown, a former House member. 

Chris Brown, who served in the Legislature for 12 years, told Mississippi Today that he loaned his son and daughter-in-law money for the hotel development, but that he did not stand to “financially benefit one penny” from the project. 

“It was their project all the way through,” Brown said of his family. 

Reeves vetoed that project from the bill that funds hundreds of local projects around the state, commonly referred to as the “Christmas tree” bill. Jordan said he talked to Reeves and told him he “would not be upset if he decided to veto that.”

The Tupelo project is the latest example of how the Legislature’s practice of earmarking hundreds of millions of dollars for pet projects based on politics lacks transparency and how even local leaders can be shut out of the process. 

Passing a Christmas tree bill is typically one of the final acts of the Legislature during a regular session, and the process can cause legislators to miss some line items in the bill. The process often prevents oversight or legitimate debate on the spending.

Even by the Legislature’s standards, it’s unusual for a municipality to receive local project money from lawmakers that the city’s leaders didn’t request. Typically, counties and cities submit a list of project requests. Then their local legislators advocate for those projects.

According to the city’s legislative priorities flyer, which was shared with Mississippi Today, the city requested $4 million to replace an aging fire station, $1 million to upgrade the north Mississippi law enforcement training center, and $500,000 to upgrade highway lighting.

In addition to the hotel project, the Legislature allocated $2.2 million for the fire station and $50,000 for upgrades to the city’s local animal shelter. It did not give the city money for highway lighting or the law enforcement center. 

Sen. Hob Bryan, a Democrat from Amory, and Sen. Chad McMahan, a Republican from Guntown, represent Lee County in the Senate. They said they didn’t ask Senate leaders for spending for the hotel project, though they voted to approve the overall project bill. 

“All of my project requests were at the written request of a unit of government,” McMahan said. 

Rep. Shane Aguirre, a Republican from Tupelo, told Mississippi Today that it was his idea to request funding for the project to help an economic development project get off the ground and save a historic building. 

“This project would have returned this property to the tax rolls, generated thousands of dollars in sales tax revenue, as well as tourism dollars, and would have created numerous jobs,” Aguirre said. 

Aguirre said he did not realize the money would be routed through the city of Tupelo until he saw the final bill. The Lee County lawmaker said the bill’s drafters likely sent the money to the city because that’s how similar projects have been funded in the past, and they assumed the city would be happy to receive the money.

“Every mayor in this state would be ecstatic to have a similar good fortune fall in their laps,” Aguirre said. 

Aguirre did not answer an emailed question asking if it occurred to him that there might be other private developers in Tupelo who would want access to state money for their projects, or if it was appropriate for the son of an incumbent elected official to receive the state funds. 

The building is the former Jefferson Davis Hotel, which was built in downtown Tupelo in the 1920s, according to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The state agency in 2014 added the building to its list of historic places, according to the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, which was the first outlet to report on details about the $2 million for the hotel development. 

Former Tupelo Mayor Jason Shelton owned the building for several years, and when Jordan took over as mayor in July 2021, his administration sought to condemn the property because it believed it posed a safety risk to people walking by and violated local building codes. 

The city issued demolition permits for the building, but never tore it down. Eventually, the city purchased the building from Shelton in September 2022. Then, the city sold the property to Blue Suede Properties LLC, owned by Joshua Brown, in April 2023. 

Chris Brown said the plans were to turn the three-story building into an Elvis Presley-themed boutique hotel. Elvis was born in Tupelo, and the city has several local attractions honoring the famous artist. 

Now that state funding has fallen through for the project, Jordan said the city will likely buy the project back from Joshua Brown’s property company and the building will be demolished. The mayor said plans aren’t final, but the space could be turned into a green space.   

Even if the property is torn down, the two-term Republican mayor said he still has questions about whose idea it was to try to get state money for the project because Aguirre has not made any similar requests of House leaders since he’s been in office. 

“I’d like to know where the actual request came from, and no one has told us,” Jordan said. “We can speculate, but I’d like to know where the request came from.” 

State law prohibits elected officials from using their office to benefit themselves or their immediate family. But Brown is no longer a member of the Legislature and said he had no stake in the company, other than loaning his son money. Aguirre said he had no personal stake in the project, either.

“The only personal gain I would have gotten was a cool place to have a drink or a nice dinner while seeing benefits of a rundown property turned into a thriving business drawing people to that part of downtown, but I guess no good deed goes unpunished,” Aguirre said.

This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Source: Original Article