Setting the runway or flying the plane in Jackson’s economic development department

If it weren’t for Drake, a row of abandoned homes next to Jackson State University might still just be sitting there, slipping into disrepair.

About a month ago, two real estate investors from California bought them up – a deal facilitated by the city’s former planning and development director Jhai Keeton, who met the pair through connections he had made working on tour logistics for the Canadian rapper.

Keeton did this off the clock in part because he wanted to prove that something, anything, could happen in the economically stagnant city.

But if another developer tried to rehab the properties through a more traditional route – that is, by securing a bank loan – Keeton said they might be out of luck. In recent years, so few homes have sold in this area of Jackson, it’s impossible to ge