Pascagoula unveils plans for new city hall

Pascagoula’s city government is looking to the future with multiple projects on the horizon designed to better house city operations.

WXXV News 25’s Lucas Warren was in the Flagship City to talk to city leaders about how these projects will impact municipal services.

In 2023, Governor Tate Reeves signed off on more than $10 million for Pascagoula projects and the city just announced the construction of a new city hall building as one of the first projects using said funds.

Renderings released for the $2 million dollar project shows a new two-story 20,000 square foot building located on Dock Street.

The Joe D. Cole, Jr. Municipal Building, which has served as the current city hall building for over 70 years, is a much smaller 6,000 square feet.

The new city hall building will also serve as the central location for Pascagoula departments with the utilities department, among others, being moved to the new building.

While there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with the current building, Pascagoula Mayor Jay Willis says the new building will go a long way in enhancing Pascagoula as a city and for its residents. “30 years ago, we outgrew this building. We made due by having city services relocated to other areas around town. Now we are in a situation where we have an opportunity to build a new city hall on the riverfront just west of where we’re standing now in downtown. It’s going to allow us to consolidate all of our city services that are spread over four locations around town.”

The new city hall building is just one project on the docket for Pascagoula as they use the $10 million dollar project budget from Governor Tate Reeves. “We’re going to build a new substation on the corner of Chicot and Old Mobile that will provide services for that area. Something we’ve needed for a long time. That area of town has deteriorated and had some problems enforcing crime and allowing our officers to have a real presence in the East Pascagoula area.”

Though renderings of the building have been released, the bid process is not expected to start until mid-November.

As of now, the City of Pascagoula is expecting the new building to be ready by mid-2026.