Wednesday was a celebration years in the making for Biloxi as the new Rouses Market opened and a groundbreaking ceremony signaled the realization of a new Popp’s Ferry connector road from Pass Road to the beach.
The announcement that Rouses was opening came in January 2023, after its location sat empty for five years. The 60,000-square-foot building was gutted and rebuilt with all the newest grocery technology and services.
Construction of the connector road is no longer years in the future. After 35 years of talk about a direct path to the beach, work is scheduled to start Nov. 25, with the road opening by the end of 2026.
Rouses opening
The celebration began at 8 a.m. with the ribbon cutting at Rouses, the fifth in the chain in Mississippi and the second this year, after the opening in Picayune in September.
“We’re proud to have this ‘super’ market in our city,” said Biloxi Mayor Andrew “FoFo” Gilich, emphasizing the word super.
The vast parking lot was jammed, yet the store was able to absorb the crowds that spread out for a first shopping trip and look around.
“This is like Christmas,” said Jane Shambra, who walked the few blocks from her home to the store, and said she likes Rouses’ focus on regional produce and name brands.
“I feel like I’m in Disney World,” said Tina Ross-Seamans, director of the Biloxi Bay Chamber of Commerce, who also lives just a few blocks away. She came for the ribbon cutting and stayed for breakfast in the cafe.
“I already can’t wait to come back,” said Alex Bosarge of Biloxi, who came on opening day especially to buy parmigiano reggiano cheese.
The store is the latest and greatest, measured in square feet as one of the largest of Rouses 65 other stores and with all the latest enhancements.
It has a boiling room where they are boiling blue crabs, crawfish and Gulf shrimp, said CEO Donny Rouse, the third generation of the Rouse family operating the stores. It also a smokehouse with all the Cajun specialties. “Everything’s wrapped in bacon and seasoned up as well,” he said.
The company tries to offer the same products at all the stores across the company. “That way customers get the same experience,” he said. However, alcohol sales aren’t allowed in Mississippi, something he said is a big part of their stores in Louisiana.
The Biloxi store is only about 5 miles down the road from the Gulfport Rouses, with another Rouses on the other side of the Biloxi bridge in Ocean Springs.
“We just saw a gap in the market in Biloxi, where we had a lot of Biloxi residents traveling to those other stores,” Rouse said. “So we felt that we can put one of our best stores here in Biloxi and we can save those customers some time, as well as filling that void in the market.”
It’s also a loyalty consideration. “People want to be in their own town. They want to keep those tax dollars in their town. Employ the people of their town. Biloxi needed a grocery store like Rouses,” he said.
Sparking development
The new Rouses is expected to bring more business to west Biloxi.
“It’s already having an impact,” said Jerry Creel, Biloxi’s community development director.
The shopping center is getting a facelift from end to end and a Chick-fil-A restaurant in the same complex will draw a lot more, he said.
A few spaces remain open in the shopping center near Rouses and John Landry, a partner in X3 Tango Development that owns the shopping center, said it’s too early to name any new tenants.
“And this is just one of many new things that’s going to be coming to the Biloxi area,” he said of Rouses.
Councilman Rodney McGilvary said he thinks the new Rouses and the straight shot to the beach will lift that whole area in west Biloxi and open land on both sides of the Popp’s Ferry extension to more development.
New road to the beach
After years of planning the route and acquiring right of way, the 1.5-mile Popp’s Ferry connector road is ready to go.
It will be a four-lane road with sidewalks, a new entrance to the Coast Coliseum and Convention Center plus a tunnel under the road to allow vehicle and pedestrian access to the coliseum’s west parking lot.
Also part of the project is a redesign of the intersection of Popp’s Ferry and Pass Road, with turn lanes to reduce congestion, especially when Keesler Air Force Base lets out, said Mike Leonard, Biloxi’s chief administrative officer.
The $20.8 million project was awarded to Necaise Brothers Construction after a time and money bidding process to get the road done quickly, said Steve Twedt, area manager for Neel-Shaffer engineering.
Neel-Shaffer has worked on the project for years, even before the route for the road, taking it around the coliseum’s parking garage, was decided in 2016.
He said when a proposed connector road from Woolmarket to the beach was never built, former U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran’s office worked to get the $6 million earmarked for that road switched to this project.
That $6 million covered all the environmental studies, initial engineering and property acquisition for the right of way, Twedt said.
“It serves a traffic need,” he said of the new road, and also potentially opens up west Biloxi to economic development.
Getting people into and out of concerts and other events at the coliseum should be much easier with the new road, said Matt McDonnell, executive director.
“Anytime we can get more exits and entrances, that should do nothing but help us,” he said.
The tunnel under the new road will be higher than a typical parking garage and give access to the west parking lot, one of the largest at the coliseum, McDonnell said.
People will have to get accustomed to the new traffic patterns. Those coming from Biloxi will be able to turn right into the Coliseum entrance. Those coming east from Gulfport will turn left onto the new section of Popp’s Ferry Road, then right into a new entrance.
The biggest challenge was finding the funds to cover the construction, said Rep. Kevin Felsher, who made it a priority.
“We cobbled together some Gulf Coast restoration funds,” he said, along with money from Mississippi Department of Transportation, Gulf Coast Regional Planning and other sources.
“When we started working as a team, the board of supervisors, the city, the coliseum, the state, we were able to get the amount of money necessary and the teamwork and commitment necessary to do this project,” he said.
The new road will aid with hurricane evacuation and open a commercial development corridor, he said, with undeveloped land on both sides of the boulevard. Since the new road will connect to a federal highway, “This could eventually lead to funding for the Popp’s Ferry Bridge, which is the ultimate big picture thing here that we’re looking at,” he said.
“And just the overall outlook for west Biloxi gets a whole lot better once this is done,” he said.
