LOCATION: Tupelo, Miss., downtown between Front Street and Highway 45

KEY DISTINCTION OF PROPERTY: Born in Tupelo, Elvis Presley performed a concert in 1956 on Fairpark District site. The city celebrates an annual Elvis Festival on the site every year.

DEVELOPED USE: A 50-acre urban renewal development started in 1999 by the Tupelo Redevelopment Agency. Among Fairpark's dominant occupants are City Hall, the Hilton Garden Inn, Coldwell Banker Tommy Morgan Inc. Realtors and the Renasant Center for IDEAs, with other businesses snapping up the empty lots.

BACKGROUND : Once the county's fairgrounds, the property had its share of challenges for redevelopment. For years private sector leaders had envisioned turning the unused land, dozens of acres that had once been the county fairgrounds, into more productive uses, beginning with a new City Hall as the centerpiece. Eventually that evolved into a bigger, broader vision: A mixed use office, retail, dining and shopping venue, complete with a hotel and convention complex. The Fairpark District concept was born.

CLEANUP ISSUES : In 2004, demolition activities were conducted by the city of Tupelo to remove the remnants of the former Long Laundry building foundation and the adjacent properties in order to begin the transformation of the properties into a "Fair Park," and a green space that would house a small amphitheater and interactive water park. After all the landscaping activities at the redeveloped site were completed, MDEQ selected an environmental contractor to complete the groundwater investigation. Liability protection was secured for the current property owner, the Tupelo Redevelopment Agency, through a Brownfield Agreement with the Mississippi Commission on Environmental Quality (MCEQ) in August 2006. The TBA Program provided approximately $87,000 in planning and assessment costs toward the redevelopment of the properties. The partners worked with environmental engineers to come up with the remediation plan, and had to address what was called "a bottomless pit of spending." MDEQ put together a plan of action. The pollution engineer (Charles Coney) was brought in, put in monitoring wells, remediated the soils and had to dispose of the soil. Now, instead of monitoring the soils four times a year, monitoring is now conducted once a year.

FUNDING MECHANISM : The city of Tupelo issued $22.7 million in bonds for the purchase of property and development of infrastructure, with a projection that private investment would eventually be three times that amount. To date all but the entertainment district has been accomplished.

SYNOPSIS: Opponents said it wouldn't work, that it was too ambitious, that Tupelo was too small for such an undertaking and that it was an unwise use of public funds. It has been transformed into a distinct advantage, not only for downtown, but for the entire city and, by extension, the surrounding region. It will more than pay for itself in increased investment and tax revenue.