Construction began in earnest Tuesday on the Halls Ferry Station, a small shopping center on South Frontage Road between Dixie Plaza and The Home Depot.

A crew of Bracken Construction from Jackson installed 16 of the 74 prefabricated panels that will be placed to complete their portion of the construction of the two wings of buildings.

Each panel is more than 6 inches thick and weighs anywhere from 30,000 to more than 68,000 pounds, site supervisor Bubba Parten said.

The 30,000-square-foot retail space is being developed by Claiborne Frazier, president of Frazier Development LLC, a subsidiary of Frazier Construction.

It is the second phase of a larger development by its former developers, Ergon Properties of Jackson.

The first was The Home Depot, partially financed through tax increment financing by the City of Vicksburg in 2003.

Development in the area east of the city’s busiest intersection began with the razing of the former Halls Ferry Elementary School in 2002, followed by the construction of Walgreens on the site in late 2004.

A separate development, Cypress Centre Marketplace, is seeking tax increment financing from the city and the county to move forward with a $25 million hotel and retail development at South Frontage and Bazinsky Road.

The hotel, called the Wingate Inn, is to be three stories with 82 rooms.

The county gave conditional approval for the financing to the complex’s lead developer, Jimmy Hamilton, last month. The request is expected to be presented later to the City of Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

Development of that site would come in two phases, the first being a 3.2-acre tract for hotel and restaurant space. Developers have said the site was selected partly because of its access to Interstate 20.

The second would develop 20.8 acres for an 180,000-square-foot shopping center plus three parcels that could be developed later.