As hard as it is to see any old building torn down, the Warren County Port Commission was correct last week not to consider an offer to make the plantation house at Ceres the centerpiece of a proposed tourism development.

The reason was not only because the offer by Deborah Reul was “not responsive” to the commission’s request for bids, which was limited to offers to raze or remove the house and a nearby structure. The reason is because what Reul envisions is not compatible with an industrial park. Who would want to stop and stroll in a “19th century village” with manufacturing plants all around it? Who would want to stay in a bed and breakfast with 18-wheelers rumbling through the night to and from a nearby chicken-cooking factory and less than a mile from the largest sewage treatment facility in Warren County?

Reul, from Missouri, is a potential investor who sees opportunity in Vicksburg and Warren County, perhaps more clearly than locals do. She is to be commended for trying to get enterprises going here despite being foiled by city officials regarding her downtown hopes and by the port board regarding the old home that came with the county’s purchase of 1,290 acres at Flowers in 1986.

The reality is that future use of the home at Ceres as a residence was sealed with the decision to transform the farmland into industrial sites. It could have been used as a reception center. It could have been used for offices. But it has been allowed to deteriorate to the point that renovation would cost more than new construction, and moving it, as Reul learned, is cost-prohibitive from a business perspective.

The port commission did get two “responsive” offers. If the winning bidder follows the example of other demolition firms, the house will be harvested and will yield valuable building materials to recycle into new projects.

Things are pretty quiet now at Ceres. Three plants are shuttered and a spec building still stands empty. But when the economy gears back up, so will development of the sites. It’s no place for a tourist attraction.