New shopping plaza under construction in Ocean Springs

A new shopping plaza is under construction on Washington Avenue in Ocean Springs.

You may have driven past the construction site, but had little idea what was being built. Between Interstate 10 and Highway 90 in Ocean Springs across the sheriff’s department, a pre-engineered metal frame currently holds the space for new shops at Washington Avenue scheduled to open this October. Owner Brad Powell said, “We’ve had an overwhelming response of interest in the project, a lot of different types of vendors. We’re in lease negotiations with several of those vendors, but there is some space available.”

The shopping plaza is 16,000 square feet, holding eleven store fronts including a Taco Sombrero, a Donut kolache shop, and a liquor store.

Those are the three stores that will open in October. The other eight stores have not been announced yet. Charisma store owner Brandin Brosh posted on Facebook that Taco Sombrero was coming to the city with a drive-thru. “Within 24 hours the post had 230 shares, reached almost 30,000 people. It was just an overwhelming excitement. Now it has 43,000 reach and over 300 shares so people are really excited.”

The new shops are paving the way for local business owners and the state to grow financially. “As far as tax revenue for the county, they were very excited about a project like this going up in the area just due to the type of draw in tax revenue they can gain out of it,” said Powell.

“I think it will be a good addition. It will bring more people to the city. It’ll help other businesses in the area because there will be more to offer,” said Brosh.