Entrepreneur Cameron Jackson, who recently opened Millennial Park, a shipping container retail and restaurant park, is planning to grow his brand with a fresh produce market on North Street in Mid City.
In late September, Jackson acquired a small lot—about one-third of an acre—in a tax sale for $9,000. The property is at the intersection of North Street and North Acadian Thruway, where N. 33rd St. dead ends into North.
His mother, Tina Jackson, will be his partner in the project and plans to help run it. She also suggested the name: Millennial Park Produce.
|
|
|
“My mom really came up with the idea for a produce market because she’s always wanted to do something like that,” Jackson says. “That area doesn’t have anything like that, either, so it could really use a market that sells fresh fruit and vegetables.”
Jackson met earlier this week with Mayor Sharon Weston Broome, who is helping him explore grant funding for the project.
He has also talked to a couple of local farmers, who have expressed an interest in selling at the market.
Though it’s still early in the planning, Jackson hopes to open the market in early 2021.
|
|
|
In the meantime, he is continuing to grow Millennial Park, which opened in June across Florida Boulevard from Baton Rouge General Hospital’s Mid City campus and has three container restaurants operating, with a snowball stand and salad shop set to open later this month.
In late September, he applied to the Planning Commission and the Alcoholic Beverage and Control board for a rezoning and permits to bring a sports bar and a daiquiri shop to Millennial Park.
This story originally appeared in the Friday, Oct. 9, edition of Daily Report. To keep up with Baton Rouge business and politics, subscribe to the free Daily Report e-newsletter here.