VISION | Jxn Tech District

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vision plan

The vision of Jxn Tech District is to create a city within a city; a true microcosm of excellence, entrepreneurship, art, and technology. At the heart of its vision Jxn Tech District will promote innovation, equity, regenerative design, and cultural responsiveness. These principles are the core values driving its design and development.

concept plan

Jxn Tech District brings more than 750,000 square feet of commercial, residential, and mixed-use development to downtown Jackson. The district includes a maker's space, an electronics and robotics lab, a creative arts center, photography studio, apartments, restaurants, parking garage and a grocery store.

equity + innovation

Jxn Tech District will be a location, project and community that embraces the equality and value of every person. The District will not be an upper-class or exclusionary environment, but instead, a place where the warm richness of southern hospitality will transcend racial, cultural and demographic boundaries and through design help to heal the wounds of historic injustices. Being a tech district means that this project will challenge limiting beliefs, capacities, and push the long-term trends of investment in the region.

cultural responsiveness

Expanding the dialogue is important when discussing the core principles this project will undertake in order to be successful. It is the beacon and calling card of Dr. Nashlie Sephus. The entirety of our focus is on the uplifting and support of her story. This project's roots in innovation, equity, and regenerative principles are intricately woven together through a cultural lens of the Black experience and will push the understanding of what being Black in Mississippi means from history into futurism.

Nashlie Sephus, Ph.D., is a Jackson, Mississippi native who works as an applied scientist at Amazon in artificial intelligence. In 2016, Sephus and the co-founders of Partpic, a visual recognition technology company, sold the startup to Amazon after Nashlie assisted Partpic in developing the startup’s visual recognition algorithms and prototypes. Through Sephus’ non-profit, The Bean Path, she is building the Jackson Tech District.

The Bean Path has been in operation since fall 2018 and has worked to provide technical expertise at its tech office hours at local libraries, youth coding/tech workshops and has provided small tech scholarships/grants. The nonprofit hopes to bridge the tech gap in Mississippi and enhance workforce development and the state’s creative economy.