City officials are looking for help to design and build a parking lot on the south end of the Mississippi Hardware building.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Friday authorized city clerk Walter Osborne to advertise for qualifications from architects and engineers to design and oversee construction of the parking lot for the former garment factory and hardware building off Mulberry Street, which is to be converted into a multi-floor innovation and tech transfer center to serve the Vicksburg area and the central Mississippi region.

The city has a $545,000 Delta Regional Authority grant to expand the parking lot, which is expected to provide parking spaces for tenants working in the building and the Vicksburg Convention Center.

Influenced by the presence of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Army’s Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg. The $19 million hardware building development project is expected to create a space to attract small and middle-sized businesses that could potentially work on federal-type programs.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen has allocated $300,000 to the project and is in the process of establishing a partnership between the city and developer Tim Cantwell concerning the project.

Cantwell said funding for the project will be done using a combination of a loan, Delta Regional Authority grant funds, federal and state historic tax credits and federal and state new market tax credits, which will be converted to money by bringing in a partner that will receive a pass through of the tax credits.

He has projected an estimated $9.5 million in debt service covered by lease payments.

The Mississippi Hardware building has been vacant since closing in October 2013, and its future use had been a topic of speculation, including the possibility the building would be converted into a hotel to serve the Vicksburg Convention Center, which sits on the west side of Mulberry Street across from the building.

Mississippi Hardware was known as an outlet for hard-to-find tools such as wrench sockets, drill bits and off-size nails, and the building was the store’s third location since its establishment in 1935.

Built in 1936, the building originally housed M. Fine and Sons Mfg. garment factory.