Wesson native builds home, hopes to revive hometown

By Jessica Breazeale

Wesson native Landon Beasley

Landon Beasley left Wesson for the Army and saw more than thirty countries. Now, he's betting on bringing his hometown back to what he remembers it being.

Beasley, 38, was born and raised in Wesson. He's an active-duty Major in the Mississippi Army National Guard, a graduate of Mississippi State University and the University of Maryland, and the founder of Southern Grid Properties, a real estate investment company he started in December 2011, right out of college.

He's also, by his own account, one of the town's biggest believers.

"I want to do something to bring and keep people there," Beasley said. "And the number one thing you’ve got to have is a house."

A career in uniform

Beasley has about two and a half to three years left before retirement from the National Guard. He is a field artillery officer who spent much of his career in Special Forces. He currently serves as range operations officer, overseeing all ranges and operational training at Camp McCain in Grenada County.

Along the way, he said, he has led more than 1,000 soldiers as a commander and deployed four times.

Building Wesson, one house at a time

Before renovation-property on Hotel Street

Beasley bought his first property, storage units and a small apartment, in 2011, and spent the next decade buying land, apartment complexes and single-family homes across the region. About three and a half to four years ago, he made a decision: sell everything outside Wesson city limits and reinvest the proceeds back into his hometown.

"That's when I just had the idea of selling everything I had outside of Wesson city proper, and then turn around and invest all that money back into Wesson," he said. "To really just kind of build the community back up to where it used to be when we were growing up…a thriving community where people wanted to move, wanted to live."

The town's biggest obstacle, he said, isn't a lack of land. It's a lack of livable housing.

"We have property and we have land, and there's houses on it; but they're not livable, or they're run down and not maintained," Beasley said.

Southern Grid Properties currently owns about fifteen houses inside Wesson city proper, along with a storage unit complex beside Shop and Wash. The company has no available homes at the moment, but four are under construction. One, a three-bedroom, two-bath house on Hotel Street, is expected to be move-in ready within thirty days. A second is expected to follow in three to four months, with two more targeted for completion within six to eight months.

After renovation- property on Hotel Street

Rather than the informal, handshake approach to renting he grew up around, Beasley said he built the business with a more structured model. Prospective residents can go to SouthernGridProps.com to pay rent, request information on available properties, join a waiting list and track the town's ongoing projects.

Why Wesson

Beasley said the decision to come home wasn't complicated, once he looked at it from the outside.

"It's coming back to seeing what Wesson was when we were kids — the flea market, Founders Day, people meeting up at the cafe, the old men gathering," he said. "And seeing that kind of slowly start to taper away."

He said it would have been easy to settle in Brookhaven, Madison, Brandon or Jackson instead. But Wesson, he said, has industry, a strong attendance center and untapped potential.

"I saw Wesson being — I don't want to say decline is the right word — but I saw Wesson, just to go through town, and I was like, I want to do something," he said. Beasley has seen plenty of towns. His favorite hobby is traveling. His other favorite hobby: working.

Looking ahead

Asked about persistent talk in town that he might run for mayor, Beasley didn't rule it out.

"I won't come out and say yes to that," he said, "but I will just say that I'm going to do everything I can to make Wesson better. If making it better is running for mayor, well, I'm going to do what I’ve got to do to make it better."

Beasley said he and others are already working to rebuild two of the town's signature events. He said organizers are hoping to grow the flea market back to roughly 200 vendor booths this year, and to reinvigorate Founders Day, both to draw visitors into town, rather than watch them pass through.

"I do think we need to be more of a small-town Mayberry," he said. "Let’s make Wesson the Mississippi Mayberry. We have everything we need. We just need to clean it up and do a little bit better."

Beasley also pointed to recent frustration among residents over changes such as the discontinuation of Taco Tuesday, and said the town could do more to make public meetings welcoming and accessible.

"Those meetings are open. Show up and show out," he said. "Say your opinions."

For more information on available properties or to join Southern Grid Properties' waiting list, residents can visit SouthernGridProps.com.