Dr. Nashlie Sephus closed on12 acres of property in Mississippi she plans to turn into a $25 million tech hub for entrepreneurs, according to a new report by Black Enterprise. Dr. Sephus purchased the land and seven buildings near Jackson State University.
In an interview with Mississippi’s Jackson NBC-affiliate, WLBT, Dr. Sephus said, “I think it’s really important for me to give back to the community that helped shape me and I always love to see people get enthused and exposed to technology and so I wanted to make that process a little bit easier.”
While the 12 acre downtown Jackson endeavor sounds like the $25 million bucks it is worth, Dr. Sephus says it wasn’t easy to acquire the funds necessary to purchase the land. Banks weren’t altogether eager to loan her the money or make the investment. However, it was the property owner who agreed to do a short-term financing deal.
Dr. Sephus says this project is important to her because it is a part of giving back to the community that gave so much to her, a 35-year-old Jackson native who is a successful Applied Science Manager for Amazon.
“I think it’s really important for me to give back to the community that helped shape me and I always love to see people get enthused and exposed to technology and so I wanted to make that process a little bit easier.”
Dr. Sephus has huge plans for her new project and how it will shape tech and the downtown Jackson area.
“And so the first phase would include the downtown storage building which we would create housing lofts in there where people can live and also have air-b-and-b and very high tech apartments with retail as well as meeting space on the bottom,” said Dr. Sephus.
“In later phases,” she continued “we also have things like food truck parks. There’s a huge 17-thousand square foot barn. Be on the lookout, we’ll soon be launching a wi-fi hotspot for children and for adults to come, especially during the day for children who need access to tutors and a very COVID safe environment to work in.”
What’s more is that she has the support of the city behind her on this project and her plans for the land.
“The city of Jackson is also behind this project 100-percent and I’m fully confident that we can get everything in place that’s needed in infrastructure as well as security to make this a success,” said Dr. Sephus.
Dr. Sephus hopes to bring technology to all of Jackson, young and old.
“If you’re not a techie by now, you definitely will be within the next couple of years, once we wrap this project up.”
Construction on this project will begin some time next year.
