New downtown apartments combine history, high-tech on Mississippi Coast

A downtown building for sale for years has been transformed into luxury apartments that preserve the architectural features of the former law office, while providing modern amenities.

What was a parking lot now is a courtyard shaded by a sprawling old oak tree. Wood shelves once stacked with law books are ready to hold books and belongings of the people who will live in the eight new luxury apartments.

District Flats apartment building at 3112 Canty St. in downtown Pascagoula is part of a renaissance in in the city, where new restaurants, bars, stores and apartments are flourishing.

A survey showed professionals working at Chevron and Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula were living in Mobile because they couldn’t find the housing they wanted in Pascagoula, said Allison Buchanan, the CEO of The Focus Group.

She and her husband Pat, owner of Brown Buchanan law firm, saw those findings as an opportunity to provide upscale housing in the office building owned by her family. They began a 2-year renovation.

A tour of the apartments

The exterior of the brick building has a New Orleans flair, with an iron balcony across the front and tall windows.

Inside, twin staircases arch to the second floor to provide a dramatic entrance in the lobby.

Throughout the building, the cabinets, bookcases and trim that were part of the office building were retained. Each apartment is different and all are outfitted with the finishes like sleek quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances, in-unit washers and dryers, ceramic tile and glass showers and commercial grade luxury vinyl tile.

The building has a mix of 1- and 2-bedroom apartments that rent for about $2,000 and include super-fast internet, water, garbage removal, the fitness room and charging station.

One unit is a short-term rental that can be used for a downtown getaway, a temporary apartment for those temporarily in the area for business or rented when residents have guests.

“We have someone in the short term rental now,”Allison Buchanan said — a professional who can use the law desks in the common area to work remotely.

High-tech amenities

While the building is decades old, District Flats provides residents with new features like keyless entry to gates and doors that can be programmed into residents’ phones. The apartments have a private 24-hour fitness facility and ev charging stations for their electric vehicles.

It also has spaces that provide residents community if they choose, meeting at a coffee shop internet café area, sharing two work spaces and reading at the extensive book library in the building.

The living room is equipped with a big screen TV and board games and decorated with pictures of Pascagoula in the 1970s, showing a submarine launch and an aerial shot of the town in that era.

Pascagoula connection

Allison and Pat Buchanan have a connection to the building that made them eager to see it repurposed.

When Hurricane Camille hit South Mississippi in 1969, Allison’s father and his law partners had a smaller office on a low spot on Watts Avenue. The families slept there and had to evacuate when water flooded into the building, she recalls.

They rebuilt “something strong and sturdy,” she said, an elegant office that also would provide a hurricane shelter for the firm’s families.

Her father hired Pat to work at the firm “without me even knowing him,” Allison said, and Pat became managing partner of her father’s firm.

Her parents died in 2016 and 2017 and she and her siblings inherited the law office her father built.

“It had been for sale at that point about 10 years,” she said, and she found the plans for the building in a tube at her parents’ house.

With plans for the remodel, the Buchanans worked with the Pascagoula Redevelopment Authority on an incentive plan. The authority reviews the application, votes on the project. monitors progress and reimburses the developers up to 25%, she said.

“It really was key for us to be able to do this,” she said, allowing them to be part of helping revitalize Pascagoula, where she was raised.