Vicksburg’s oldest apartment complex is in line for a sorely needed facelift – if the heady plans of a North Carolina-based development group move from concept to reality.

Integra Development Partners, of Raleigh, N.C., plans to revamp the drab Circle Lake Apartments and rename the gleaming complex they envision the Madison Glen Apartments.

&#8220It’s a major renovation,” said Bill Cramer, Integra project manager, adding all the amenities of modern-day, upscale rental units will adorn every inch of the Circle Lake’s 3.4 acres, such as recreation rooms and a playground for children and new furnishings inside to attract adults.

Peeling paint and shabby overhangs will disappear, with all doors and windows to be replaced, Cramer said. Inside the 68 units that will make up the Madison Glen, gas stoves and water heaters will be replaced with electric appliances and decrepit bathroom furnishings will give way to shiny, new faucets and toilets.

&#8220The drywall will be the only thing kept inside,” Cramer said.

Built in 1950, the 17 buildings that comprise Circle Lake was the first home for many Vicksburgers in decades past.

&#8220If you talk to any couple who was young back then, they probably lived in the Circle Lake,” said Gil Israel, whose father, Calvin, was a property manager at the complex from its completion in the heyday of drive-in movie theaters and penny candy.

While his father was away from the apartments working his day job with Illinois Central Railroad, his mother, Ruth, handled bookkeeping and grounds for Circle Lake for about 30 years until her death in 1986.

Israel, 55, remembers days spent baking in Vicksburg’s hot summers – the units did not have central air conditioning until the late 1960s – and nights spent just a stone’s throw from the Rivoli Drive-In movie theater.

Or, as Israel put it, a wire’s reach.

&#8220We used to run a speaker wire from the old Rivoli theater up the hill so we could listen to the movies from my building,” Israel said.

But, like so many apartment buildings built in the years following World War II, the Circle Lake has fallen into a state of general disrepair and blight, with its environs at Hope Street and Baldwin Ferry Road a routine hotspot for crime.

&#8220It’s not the same as it used to be,” Israel said.

That assessment is shared by its new developers, however tinged with a healthy dose of optimism.

&#8220It’s a good location. It just needs a lot of work,” Cramer said.

Developers involved in the project hope to close on the property and begin construction by June 1, Cramer said.

Circle Lake’s makeover is one of three projects on the drawing board in Vicksburg and Warren County this year to build housing complexes targeted to lower income renters with tax credits available from the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act, an outgrowth of the federal government’s efforts to rebuild areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Warren was one of 49 counties in Mississippi designated by Congress as eligible for individual and public assistance following the storm, the same model Congress used in creating the zone. Within it came myriad tax credits for rebuilding housing in the central Gulf Coast, as well as for businesses trying to re-establish after the storm.

The GO Zone legislation pumped up the per-capita funding for such developments from $1.90 to $18, creating a flurry of activity by developers wanting a piece of the action.

The credits are administered by state level housing agencies, in Mississippi’s case, the Mississippi Home Corporation. After applicants were graded on a 122-point system based on developers following program guidelines both required and optional, the MHC awarded $23.4 million in credits in 2006 to developers in 22 locations statewide, the majority of which were in the hard-hit southern counties of Hancock, Harrison and Jackson.

Five projects among numerous others denied for having low scores or because the state running out of credits were five proposed in Vicksburg and Warren County, including one at the former Pinewood Motel property on U.S. 80.

This year, Integra has received $463,911 in credits to rehab Circle Lake and an additional $624,392 to do the same to the Capitol Apartments in Jackson. Also, the firm has an application pending in MHC’s next crediting cycle to perform a similar rehab to the Canal Street Apartments in Canton.

In all, 17 developments received $19,400,621 in tax credits by the 2007 GO Zone Credit Authority, giving development groups such as Integra the go-ahead to begin work after the first of three credit cycles. Twelve of the 17 went toward housing developments along the coast.

Integra was formed in 2003 by Claude Hicks and Judy Core, previously principals of another North Carolina company, Regency Development Associates.

Along with the rest of Integra’s executive and development team, the firm claims 25 years of experience in the housing industry and more than $800 million in development in eight states, primarily in the Southeast.

Officials in Vicksburg familiar with last year’s round of projects emphasized Integra’s experience as a key to success in rehabilitation projects such as Circle Lake.

&#8220They know the pitfalls, and so they know the process,” said Wayne Mansfield of the city Planning Department.

Circle Lake’s current operator, Lee Crisler of Clinton, expects the transition from market rate to the GO Zone’s sliding income-based rents to be smooth.

&#8220I think it’s needed for the complex and that area in Vicksburg,” Crisler said.

Crisler’s father, James, owned the Circle Lake from the early 1960s until the property was passed down to surviving family members upon his death about 10 years ago, Crisler said.

&#8220We’ve had it 41 years,” Crisler said. &#8220But what they will do to it will be a good thing.”