"When you drive through town, every door is shutting every other year," Bruce Simpson told The Dispatch in July. Simpson grew up in West Point and owns Silver Leaf Construction. He co-founded Old Growth Holdings with two other local partners, and the company now owns four of the oldest storefronts on East Main Street.
What's moving into those buildings, and into the larger one up the street, matters more than how many doors reopen. Most of the tenants lined up for January are places people go every week: a gym, a wellness retailer, a tanning studio. The biggest project on the block is built for families and for up to 300 people at once. For years, downtown West Point mostly drew dinner reservations and the occasional antiques trip. This winter's openings are aimed at the rest of the week.
Four buildings from the 1880s, and one is already open
All four Old Growth Holdings buildings went up between 1885 and 1890. Recently, two were owned by a company called Nu Look, one sat empty, and one was an appliance store. The former appliance store originally opened as an opera house. Old Growth renovated it first, and it reopened as Mockingbird Lane Antique Market about seven months before The Dispatch's July 18 story, so around December 2025.
Mockingbird Lane runs on vendor booths. It's listed at 26451 E Main Street, and its September 2026 posts show vendors stocking new pieces, including a creamer and an etched brass vase. The opera house shows what Old Growth plans for the other three buildings. Work on those includes upgrading the roofs, plumbing and electrical systems, plus restoring the original hardwood floors and walls. The exteriors get only light work, and Simpson said they "will remain true to the historical facades." 209 E. Main St. is one of the four. The Dispatch pictured Simpson there pointing out the planned changes.
Here's where each property stood as of the most recent reporting:
| Property | Built | Status as last reported | Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Former opera house, now Mockingbird Lane Antique Market | 1885–1890 | Open since about December 2025 | Open |
| Old Growth building, tanning company | 1885–1890 | Under renovation, tenant lined up | January 2027 |
| Old Growth building, gym | 1885–1890 | Under renovation, tenant lined up | January 2027 |
| Old Growth building, health and wellness retailer | 1885–1890 | Under renovation, tenant lined up | January 2027 |
| Justice Company Building, Flyway Brewing | 1910 | Stripped to original floors and walls, interior build-out starting in July | About Jan. 15, per July interview |
Sources: The Dispatch, July 18, 2026, and November 20, 2025.
The tenants' business names haven't been reported, and The Dispatch didn't say which tenant goes into which building. Simpson estimates the whole project at $750,000. He said Old Growth is choosing tenants on purpose and wants "good tenants rather than just people that want a storage building or something."
The Justice Company Building and its 300-person capacity
The biggest change is just up the street, in the Justice Company Building across from Anthony's Good Food Market. The building dates to 1910, sat empty for a couple of years, and has about 9,000 square feet. It's becoming a West Point location of Flyway Brewing.
Flyway started in 2015 as a 10-barrel microbrewery in North Little Rock, Arkansas, and it's named after one of North America's main bird migration routes. Its home base is next to the Arkansas River in North Little Rock's Argenta Arts District. Anthony's owner Ray Hamilton is the operating partner, together with several investors and the Flyway owners.
When the project was announced last November, Hamilton described the plans:
- Brewing: a 15-barrel brewhouse producing about 3,000 barrels a year to start, plus small-batch canning for beers made just for the Golden Triangle
- Capacity: room for up to 300 people
- Food: bar food such as wild game, artisan pizzas, quail sliders and burgers
- Outside: a renovated outdoor area with lawn games and live music, which The Dispatch described as kid-friendly in July
Hamilton is working with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to bring back the building's original character. He mentioned the old pine floors, old skylights, iron tension rods and original framing. "We're going to use all of it," he said.
The capacity number stands out. Room for 300 people is a big space for downtown West Point. Last November, Hamilton said he hopes it becomes a family-friendly stop that catches the eye of anyone driving through West Point. In July, he said he hopes it brings more traffic downtown, especially from drivers passing through on Highway 45 Alternate. "West Point has all the potential in the world, and this could be the spark plug that kicks things off," he told The Dispatch last year.
Why the tenant mix changes how the block gets used
Anthony's has been on this street longer than almost anything else. It opened as a grocery in 1936 and added a cafe in 1954. Today it's a dinner restaurant at 121 W Main St., known for aged steaks, a raw bar with oysters and clams, and craft cocktails. Its online ordering hours are 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 5 to 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It's closed Sunday and Monday.
So right now, the best-known business on the block is an evening, five-nights-a-week destination, and its next-door anchor is an antiques market. The incoming tenants are a different kind of business. People go to a gym on a schedule, often several times a week. A tanning studio and a wellness retailer also run on repeat visits. Add a 300-person brewery with an outdoor area for kids, and this stretch of Main Street gets reasons for people to show up at hours when it's quiet now.
That's the outcome Simpson and Hamilton both described. Simpson said he hopes the project encourages other residents to invest in downtown buildings. Hamilton said more boutiques and more kid-friendly spaces would bring even more people downtown. "We have big plans for this town because we believe it's going to grow," Simpson said.
"It's got a strong soul to it, and I think it has all the potential in the world. We've just got to work together and provide these opportunities to showcase what we can do." Ray Hamilton, speaking to The Dispatch in July 2026
The January dates are targets
Both projects are aiming for an opening this coming January, but the dates come from interviews in July. We haven't found any report since then that confirms progress or sets a new timeline.
The brewery's schedule has already moved once. In November 2025, the stated goal was to open "by fall." By July, crews had cleared the building down to its original floors and walls and were "about to start putting up actual walls and equipment." Hamilton said Jan. 15 is "probably going to be the opening day." Flyway's website location list currently shows Argenta, Bentonville, Breckenridge, Fayetteville and Memphis. West Point isn't on it yet. That page isn't dated, so the missing listing doesn't tell us much either way. The brewery's Bentonville taproom opened on Aug. 10.
Old Growth's three tenants also have a January 2027 target, the date Simpson gave for finishing the work and moving tenants in. Restoring 140-year-old buildings, with upgraded roofs, plumbing and electrical, is the kind of project where schedules can slip.
Signs to watch for this winter:
- Equipment arriving at the Justice Company Building, across from Anthony's
- Signs going up on the three Old Growth storefronts, since the tenants' names haven't been made public
- West Point added to Flyway Brewing's location list
Downtown commercial buildings are a big part of our work at Delta-Gulf Real Estate Corporation. If you own a building on Main Street, or you've had your eye on one since these projects started, we'd be glad to talk about current values, what tenants are looking for, and what it takes to fill an empty storefront. Explore Our Properties to see what's available in West Point now.
