Almost a year after Michael Jackson's passing, his father pledged on Wednesday that their hometown will be transformed into a $US300 million ($A356.51 million)-dollar complex devoted to the Jackson family's musical legacy.

Joe Jackson, the King of Pop's father who previously said that his son is "worth more dead than he was alive", said that he is trying to make his son's dreams come true by coming up with the tourism destination and memorial in Gary, Indiana.

"I'm just carrying out his legacy," Jackson said.

"He wanted to come back here, and we're bringing him back and we're coming back with something as well."

Michael Jackson last visited his hometown in Gary last 2003. During his visit, he told the residents of the gritty industrial town that he wished to see a performing arts center built there in his honour.

His father wants a more detailed "Jackson Family Center" that has two hotels, a conference center, restaurants, shops, a golf course, apartmens, a train and bus terminal, recording and television studios, a movie theatre, nightclubs, a museum and a concert hall.

Gary Mayor Rudy Clay called the project a lifeline for their hopeless steel town which has been burdened by deep poverty and long-term unemployment.

"Sometimes it's hard to hope," Clay said during a press conference in Gary's convention center.

"But right now, hope is alive."

According to Clay, the complex could bring in 500,000-750,000 visitors every year, create thousands of jobs and have an annual economic impact of $US100 ($A118.84) to $US150 million ($A178.25 million) dollars.

Jackson Development and Marketing Corporation's proposal said that "we have the funding in place to make this project a reality" and promised to give funds for the "beautification" of Gary's downtown area.

"Gary falls into the classic pattern of Detroit as an American ghost town where the industry dried up and nothing replaced it," said Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg, who is working on a book about Gary.

"It took a certain agility for towns like St. Louis to move from dying industries to something else. Gary never did that, in part due to the buffoonish leadership it's always had."

Mayor Clay admitted that Gary's residents have been disappointed by broken promises, but claimed on Wednesday that things will be different because the project is "definitely going to happen".

"What happens is, people sometimes they're down so long and when they're up they don't believe they're really up, they still think they're down," he said.

"We're up in Gary. Our spirits are up. Our goals are up. We're progressing here."

Not all the attendees of the meeting were convinced though.

Simon Sahouri, president of the Jackson Family Foundation, said that the project is still in its "conceptual" phase and said that it will take "a few years to accomplish".

"This is only drawings," he said. "We have a lot of work to do."