The decades have taken their toll on the historic King Edward Hotel in downtown Jackson, MS.

“It’s been vacant since the late 1960s. There’s a lot of deterioration, vandalism and destruction in it,” said assistant superintendent James Guinn. He works for Clayco, the company that has taken on the environmental remediation phase of the renovation project.

Guinn estimated this phase will be complete by mid-March.

Workers, this week, have started eliminating asbestos from the building – one of the most time-consuming steps because of strict criteria for isolating and removing the hazardous substance.

Prior to this, workers finished gutting the structure and removing the debris, such as rotting building materials.

Once asbestos removal has been completed, engineers can inspect the structural integrity of the building and architects can begin designing what the new King Ed will look like.

From the street, it’s hard to tell work is going on. The building is surrounded by a fence and workers are mostly concentrated on the interior.

“People seemed to think it would look like bees swarming a flower, with guys climbing all over the building,” Guinn said.

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