Consider This: LeFleur’s Bluff Redevelopment

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - There was exciting news last week with plans to redevelop the dormant state property at LeFleur’s Bluff.

A state-of-the-art playground opened last December and there have already been tens of thousands of people who have taken advantage of the new amenity.

The next phase of the development will be extensive. The Complex will connect the campuses of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, the Museum of Natural Science and the Mississippi Children’s Museum.

The master plan includes a new and unique golf experience, Otter Creek Golf Park, along with many other improvements, creating one of the best urban parks in the country.

The golf course will be designed by one of the best names in the business, Robert Trent Jones.

One part of this project that is extremely exciting is this facility will become the permanent home of First Tee of Mississippi. First Tee not only exposes young people to the game of golf, more importantly it helps build character, inner strength, self-confidence, and resilience that helps kids for the rest of their lives.

This will be a great opportunity for the children of Jackson.

There is no doubt this destination will be hugely successful. It is the type of project that is so important to the quality-of-life for young families.

We desperately need more initiatives like this to help stop the brain drain, with recent graduates moving out of Mississippi and negatively affecting the future of our state.

Whether it is public investment, public private partnerships, or private dollar projects, it will take initiatives like this to keep young people here.

We may not ever be Nashville, Charlotte, Austin or even Birmingham, but we need to keep working to create experiences and destinations like this so we can recruit more people to Mississippi and give people who are thinking about leaving reasons to reconsider that decision.

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