Delta Southern Bank has awarded three more grants worth $221,963 to Drew Enterprises, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, to renovate three buildings in Drew, Miss.
Delta Southern Bank is owned by Southern Bancorp., a bank holding company.
This is the latest series of grants being used to renovate nine buildings in downtown Drew, located in Sunflower County.
About eight years ago, the city’s Main Street had a series of fires which devastated the area, according to Steve Shurden, president of Drew Enterprises and the Drew Chamber of Commerce.
A group of citizens then got together to renovate and restore downtown Drew. First, the community joined the Mississippi Main Street program, then formed Drew Enterprises to acquire and restore old buildings and recruit businesses.
Drew Enterprises has used $250,000-$300,000 in Delta Southern grants to restore the first six buildings.
A hospice occupies one of the buildings and employs 65 people. Mississippi Delta Community College occupies two buildings as part of a satellite school which offers 20 classes and enrolls about 140 students. Another building is used for a farmers’ market. PC’s Cafe and Beck’s Cabinet Shop are also tenants in renovated Downtown buildings.
Delta Southern Bank also donated $40,000 for landscaping and lighting improvements on Main Street.
“The first thing we had to learn is that Drew would never be the same town it was, but it could be better,” Shurden says. “Our goal is to improve the quality of life in this small town, one building at a time.”