A Jackson company is in the process of acquiring the South Street Apartments, located at 1201 South St. 

John Hunter, CEO of Skyline Innovations, said the company is in the process of working on closing the property’s purchase from Washington Apartment Homes LLC, which is affiliated with New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Natchez. New Hope bought the property from Habitat for Humanity for $115,000 in 2018.

“We’re actually in the title search of the deal right now,” Hunter said. “Once we get through with the title search and make sure all that is clean and clear, we plan to close and move forward expeditiously with trying to renovate that complex and bring it back online.”

Hunter said the company is interested in the apartment complex because it appears to be structurally sound.

“We just don’t want a lot of paperwork cluttering up with the title and ownership,” he said. “We’re trying to bring that apartment up to date and up to code and provide housing for veterans, low- to moderate-income — people who need housing.”

Skyline Innovations would be the third company to own the property since it was closed by the city. 

Also known as the Triple Six Apartments, the South Street apartment complex is located between South and Locust streets in Vicksburg. 

The city in June 2012 closed 14 of the apartments because of their condition, and later condemned the rest of the complex, putting it under the city’s slum clearance ordinance, which allowed the city to take control of the property, demolish it and put it up for sale to recover its costs.

While it was vacant, the apartment complex was vandalized for copper pipe and wiring and was used by vagrants as a place to sleep or get out of the weather.

In 2014, the apartment complex was bought by Kent Smith, a Holly Springs lawyer, who intended to refurbish the apartments. The project never materialized, and Smith in 2016 donated the complex to Habitat for Humanity with the provision that whatever happens to the property it enhances the city, the South Street neighborhood and the city’s downtown district.

The apartment complex has been a thorn in the side of the city and the residents who live around it.

“The community is sick and tired of nothing being done,” Ward 1 Alderman Michael Mayfield said. “In the past, they’ve been promised by different owners that it’s going to be rehabbed and absolutely nothing is done. How long are those residents going to suffer with that eyesore?

“There are going to have to be more discussions with the board because we can’t afford to have that property deteriorating and causing further disgrace and harm to the community.”