CEO of Larger Greenville and a Ahead Considering Visionary
By Jack Criss • Images by Johnny Jennings
Daniel Boggs is a dwelling refutation of Leo Derocher’s well-known assertion that “good guys end final.”
Initially, you couldn’t meet a nicer man than Boggs, at the moment the Chief Govt Officer of Larger Greenville—what he has shortened from the “official” names of the three entities he oversees: Larger Greenville Housing & Revitalization Affiliation, Inc., the Larger Greenville Improvement Basis and Major Avenue Greenville.
Second, removed from being final, Boggs has overseen the revitalization of his adopted house of Greenville in ways in which, twenty years in the past, might need been unthinkable or past realization.
So, no, this good man doesn’t end final. Under no circumstances. And he received’t cease working till he places Greenville, Mississippi first, as a matter of reality.
Surprisingly, the work Boggs at the moment places his coronary heart and soul into—primarily financial and group improvement—was not what he initially envisioned in any respect for a profession path. That will have been as a panorama architect.
“Sure, it’s true,” laughs Boggs. “After I graduated from Mississippi State in 2004 with my Panorama Architect Diploma, I instantly moved to Miami, Florida to pursue my profession, a spot the place I might become involved in actually cool, attention-grabbing initiatives. And I did. I labored on two Tremendous Bowl initiatives, the Florida Everglades restoration undertaking, the West Palm Seaside bridge, the redevelopment of a number of well-known boulevards in Miami—and different actually enjoyable and difficult offers.”
Boggs says that in Miami, as in different main markets, panorama architects can thrive of their careers. That’s not so true in Mississippi although, as Boggs quickly found.
“I returned to Mississippi as a part of the Hurricane Katrina reduction efforts,” he says, “however I knew sustainable design methods and a few engineering via my training at MSU with my diploma and group improvement and planning matches into that, as nicely. That’s why, now, I merely inform people who my career is a developer.”
When Boggs says he returned to Mississippi, he’s referring to his birthplace of Florence, situated simply south of Jackson in Rankin County.
“After I was rising up there, the inhabitants was solely about 1800,” he says. “After all, it’s a lot greater now. Later in life, after I inform individuals I used to be from Florence, they assumed it was the city in Alabama. However then I’d point out the well-known igloo on Hwy. 49 South and instantly everyone knew the place I used to be speaking about, the long-lasting Jerry’s Catfish Home!”
His dad and mom, Vic and Nedra Boggs, have been highschool sweethearts who have been additionally born and raised in Florence. They fell in love on their senior journey in highschool and married six months later, says Boggs. “My brother David was born first and he now lives in Olive Department, after which I got here alongside in 1980,” he says.
Boggs’ father ended up changing into part-owner of Leonard Metallic Fabricators, a sheet metallic store in Pearl, the place he had labored his approach up beginning as a highschool worker. And his mom was a widely known and achieved insurance coverage agent who spent most of her life working for Barksdale Bonding and Insurance coverage in Jackson.
“They have been each extremely onerous staff,” he says. “My mom ended up being one in every of their prime gross sales brokers earlier than she completed her profession working for Areas Financial institution after Barksdale purchased them out. They’re each retired now and love tenting!” he says.
Boggs graduated from Florence Excessive College in 1999, enjoying each sport he might, and referred to as his childhood moderately idyllic.
“We at all times referred to as Florence ‘Mayberry’ again then,” remembers Boggs. “In reality, rising up there, I can keep in mind just one homicide ever occurring and that was throughout an early morning theft. Doorways have been left unlocked, all the children rode their bike in all places and I even grew up in a home that my father constructed, doing all the pieces however laying the brick. Everybody in my household have been do-it-yourself varieties so I realized that early on, as nicely.”
Boggs spent two years at Hinds Neighborhood School earlier than going to Mississippi State and on to Miami, he says. “I really received my first job provide in landscaping after my junior 12 months at State. An organization that did a number of work in Starkville was Arazoza Brothers, and I received to know their proprietor, Albert Arazoza, who was an enormous supporter of MSU campus landscaping. We performed golf collectively and he had a job lined up for me earlier than I had even graduated. That’s how I ended up in Miami,” says Boggs.
After leaving Arazoza in August, 2005, Boggs went on to work with different firms over the subsequent two years in undertaking and panorama design in addition to land planning work. He additionally frolicked as an Alpine Camp Counselor even earlier than working in Miami, a Christian camp for faculty youngsters in Alabama the place he mentored the youth in a real again to nature ambiance with no digital gadgets allowed.
“It was a beautiful expertise for me, the place working collectively and the Christian religion have been emphasised in a approach that made these younger individuals higher as people,” he says.
Quick ahead to November, 2007 when Boggs went to work for the Mississippi Improvement Authority in Jackson as a bureau supervisor, spending almost six and a half years there.
“That’s what introduced me again to Mississippi and, initially, I offered help to for-profit, non-profit and native models of presidency to construct, reconstruct and rehabilitate about 2,200 models for low-to-moderate earnings households on the Gulf Coast within the wake of Hurricane Katrina,” says Boggs. “I used to be recruited to MDA by Brian McDonald, who had been appointed by Governor Haley Barbor as head of restoration after the hurricane. I had recognized Brian after I labored as a runner for Ott and Purdy regulation agency in Jackson throughout highschool and he was conscious of my group improvement background, so I got here again.”
Plus, Boggs says, three of his grandparents had handed away across the identical time that McDonald reached out, and he knew it was time to return again to Mississippi.
Boggs additionally shaped Boggs and Associates whereas at MDA, the place he labored from July, 2006 to July, 2011. “Throughout all this time, with MDA and my very own consulting agency, I realized all about grants and grant writing, guidelines and rules of federal funding, group improvement and lots of different expertise which I exploit daily now in Greenville. Studying these items, coupled with my landscaping and constructing background, set me up completely for my present place.”
Boggs realized of the opening in Greenville for a CEO to run the Larger Greenville Housing and Revitalization Affiliation from Ben Mokry, the vice-president of the Mississippi Dwelling Company on the time. “I utilized for the job in late 2011 and, after an extended course of and a number of other interviews, was named CEO in July, 2012 and have been right here ever since.”
When Boggs got here aboard, he met with banker Chuck Jordan who endorsed him for the job. Boggs and his spouse, Hillary, who had married in 2010 and have been then dwelling in Madison in Lake Caroline proceeded to make the transfer to the River Metropolis.
“Hillary was the very best good friend of my sister-in-law in highschool,” says Boggs of how he and his future spouse met. “They launched us and we clicked. Hillary is a graduate of Millsaps School and acquired quite a few awards as an undergraduate scholar. She additionally graduated from the Millsaps School Else College of Administration as their prime MBA scholar.”
The couple now have two kids, Hannah, who’s twelve, and Haley, who’s 9.
“We got here as much as Greenville just some brief months after we had Hannah,” remembers Boggs. “I had constructed this nice nursery for her in our house in Madison however, after all, she by no means spent a minute in it!” laughs Boggs. “However, we have been nonetheless excited in regards to the new alternative in Greenville and thought we might make a optimistic change, which was our final driver in getting right here.”
Nevertheless, the couple didn’t know a soul once they arrived till they determined to have dinner on their very first night time in Greenville after leaving their rental home. It was at Sherman’s and the co-owner, Peter Nimrod, got here as much as their desk, launched himself and truly provided the couple tickets to see a play after their meal at Delta Middle Stage.
“He requested if we’d like to hitch him and his youngsters, and we stated, ‘Certain!’ It simply went to point out how good individuals could be right here and, after all, Peter and Allison stay mates of ours,” says Boggs.
“Daniel Boggs has been making an enormous distinction right here in Greenville along with his work in offering secure, reasonably priced and respectable housing,” says that first good friend he made, Mississippi Levee Board Director, Peter Nimrod. “Below his management as Chief Govt Officer, the Larger Greenville Housing has constructed forty-two townhouses referred to as The Reserves at Ed Grey Park and so they have renovated dilapidated residences such because the Les Lane House Advanced and the Cypress Pointe Residences. Greenville’s downtown had additionally fallen into disarray over the previous decade.
“One household owned eighteen properties downtown and so they weren’t concerned with fixing them up or leasing them out. In 2021, Larger Greenville bought these eighteen properties and they’re busy reworking them and getting companies to relocate again downtown. This work helps to fully flip round downtown Greenville and this can revitalize the guts of Greenville,” continues Nimrod.
“The previous Levee Board workplace on the intersection of Major and Walnut Streets was transformed to the Greenville Inn & Suites Resort in 1996 and was operated by the Trop On line casino. In 2020 they determined to not renew the lease. In 2021, I requested Daniel if the Larger Greenville Improvement Basis can be concerned with buying the property to run as a resort. Daniel and his board jumped on the probability and so they reworked the resort and reopened it as Resort 27 in August, 2021. Resort 27 is doing nice and is the one historic resort in downtown Greenville,” says Nimrod.
“Daniel has a number of optimistic vitality and he’s a tough employee and he and Larger Greenville are serving to revitalize Greenville in unbelievable methods,” he says.
Nimrod named a lot of Boggs’ accomplishments since he has been CEO and the record of different such accomplishments are virtually too many to say. From an preliminary employees of three in 2012, Boggs now oversees a employees of twenty immediately and is the director of the world well-known Delta Scorching Tamale Competition, the state’s largest cultural meals pageant which brings guests from all throughout the nation. The Competition just lately received a nationwide award.
“We’ve an awesome board of administrators behind us and the help of the group,” says Boggs. “Transferring the needle and making a optimistic change is what drives me each single day.”
Boggs and Larger Greenville are at the moment spearheading a $20 million downtown revitalization initiative that can convey some fifty-two extra housing models and twenty-three business areas, which has earned the group nationwide recognition. And Boggs says that such work is barely simply starting and the very best is, actually, but to return.
“It looks like each week we’re making progress on some completely different entrance,” enthuses Boggs. “That’s what it’s all about.”
And that’s additionally why good guys like Daniel Boggs will end first. And Greenville will probably be proper there with him.
