NorthStar Expansion to Attract New Tenants to ‘Marquee Location’
Jul 5, 2024 - Oktibbeha County, MS
by: Emma McRae, The Dispatch
With $2.5 million in state funds secured, NorthStar Industrial Park is set for expansion.
The money will be used to develop a new 200,000-square-foot pad at NorthStar, which will be marketed for new tenants to build on.
Mississippi Development Authority awarded a Mississippi Site Development grant Friday to Oktibbeha County, and it was announced Monday at the board of supervisors meeting.
District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer called it a “win-win” deal.
“It’s not going to cost us extra money,” Trainer told The Dispatch Monday. “We’re able to use money already allocated for that project as matching money. … We’re looking forward to some big things coming out of that park. Looking forward to occupying and filling that park up with other tenants and things of that nature.”
Golden Triangle Development LINK Chief Operating Officer Meryl Fisackerly said the grant will require a match of $279,820 or 10% of the total project cost, whichever is less.
The match will be split equally between the county and the city of Starkville using funds remaining from $14 million in bonds issued in July 2017 for the park’s construction. The Tennessee Valley Authority, 4-County Electric Power Association, Atmos Energy Corporation and the Mississippi Department of Transportation also contributed funds to the park.
Development at the nearly 400-acre industrial park started in 2017, though construction was delayed by a civil lawsuit and the pandemic. Two speculative buildings were built at the park, located off Highway 389 in Starkville, to attract new industries to the area.
Garan Manufacturing became the park’s first tenant in 2021, located in the first spec building on the north side of the park’s entrance.
Construction for a neighboring Amazon “last mile” facility started late last year on the south side of the street. Both of those facilities are on smaller lots, around 20-plus acres each, GTR LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins said.
The new pad in-progress is located off Highway 82 near the Louisville exit. Higgins said the site will be visible from the highway.
“It will be a marquee location,” he said. “You’ll be able to see it, but you’ll have to access it through the original entrance of the industrial park.”
A pad is a prepared site that provides a foundation on which new companies can start construction while avoiding the time and costs of preparing the area.
Higgins said the site is already leveled and cleared of trees, with access to water, sewer and electricity. But the pad itself still needs to be built, including clearing any remaining vegetation and compacting the soil. That work is set to start this summer, and it should take about six months depending on the weather, Higgins said.
“All the utilities are in,” he said. “… It can’t have rail, but other than that, gas has to be extended back there. But that’s not a lengthy process, and all the environmental stuff has already been done (and is) ready to go when we’re ready to go.”
Even without the pad completed, Higgins said the 200,000-square-foot space is already on the market to attract new tenants. There are currently no companies in discussions for the site, he said.
Future developments
After the project is finished, Higgins said there will be two more pad ready sites to develop, another 200,000-square-foot site and a 100,000-square-foot site. He said the plan is to have both sides of the park’s main road, Jack Wallace Boulevard, occupied with sites similar in size to the Garan and Amazon locations.
“The plan is to build those size buildings and those size pads all the way down, north and south (sides), … to where it intersects with Retherford Road,” he said.
Once those sites have been developed, Higgins said the park will be competitive for industrial recruitment.
“Imagine if you were up or down the road, somewhere not in our service territory, and somebody’s looking at a 200,000-square-foot building,” Higgins said. “Think about the competitive advantage we’re going to have. Water is there, sewer is there, roads are there and the pad is ready to start building. We just knocked six or nine months off of your timeline to get into production.”