NATCHEZ — The first point of business to enhance downtown Natchez’s economic development is to hire a leader, Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell and City Planer Riccardo Giani said in a recent presentation to downtown merchants.

At Wednesday’s weekly downtown merchants meeting, Grennell and Giani spoke about how hiring a downtown development or Main Street director could be a catalyst to move downtown forward.

Downtown business owners have been calling for such a leader of late, hoping to resurrect a position for which the city cut funding nearly a decade ago. Now, Grennell said he plans to request not only his board of aldermen, but also the Adams County Board of Supervisors and Natchez Inc. allocate money to cover the salary of a downtown director. Grennell said the city has already identified funds received from its lease of land to Magnolia Bluffs Casino that can go toward the purpose of hiring a head for downtown.

Grennell, who has called downtown the “crown jewel” of Natchez, said the city must invest in downtown as if it were a business and added that downtown employs hundreds of people.

“When you look at downtown Natchez collectively, it’s an industry,” Grennell said. “It’s important that we look at it from an industrial standpoint. It has a domino effect on this entire city.”

The point about treating downtown Natchez as an industry stuck with Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce President Debbie Hudson.

“We think of economic development as smokestacks at the port and big business, but I think … there’s 800 people employed in this district that they’re talking about, and that’s a big company size,” Hudson said. “We need to start looking at downtown like that.”

The downtown merchants meeting — where these discussions about the future occurred — have been going on for roughly a year and a half in an effort to form some cohesiveness. This plan presented by Grennell and Giani, however, presents a more concrete plan moving forward.

Grennell also mentioned adding some “wayfinding signage” to help visitors navigate throughout the city, developing the old Broadway Street Depot, exploring the potential relocation of the Natchez post office and eliminating zoning laws that currently prevent many types of new establishments downtown — such as bars, colleges or auditoriums, to name just a few — as some goals for downtown.

The eventual director, he said, would oversee much of the plan he laid out, but so will residents in the form of various committees.

“From what I could tell from the meeting (on Wednesday), everyone is very enthused and excited about moving downtown forward, which of course has a big impact on the entire city of Natchez,” Grennell said.

One aforementioned project, the depot, should see some movement this month, Grennell said. Natchez is currently “95-percent” done with preparing a request for proposals on the depot, which Grennell said the city would likely publish sometime this month. At that point, groups can submit bids on the depot to turn it into a restaurant-like establishment, which is what the city has proposed for the structure.