Update on Starkville Industrial Park

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- Work is going strong at Starkville’s new industrial park.

And now it’s time to find companies to fill the 400-acre park.

The Industrial Park in Starkville is one step closer to completion.

“The project is going very well. We’ve got a lot of things, a lot of moving parts. We are basically having a briefing today with the city and the county and OCEDA to go over the road construction, the water, and the sewer, the substation, the gas line project, all the things that are going to come together,” said LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins.

Now it’s time to move into the next phase bringing in businesses and jobs.

“Think of terms of advanced manufacturing. Could be automotive components, we have had some food projects that have looked that could work there, and work well. I think will be a good fit for Starkville and even aerospace components working in partnership with Mississippi State and the advanced the UAV work that they are doing we think there is a possibility to get people to make aerospace components out there as well,” said Higgins.

And those potential jobs are on the mind of Orlando Trainer.

“Even in this economy there is a lot of employment opportunities out there, but you find a lot of people who are underemployed and people who were looking at trying to find gain greater employment as relates to their skill set and income. we have a lot of people who approach us all the time wanting to stay here in the community, but the opportunities are not there,” said Trainer.

And the wait may not be that long.

“We have a tenant that is already looking at the park before even finished and we found a lot that we think that we can put them on and we are and hope that maybe after the first of the year they would let us know whether we won the deal or not,” said Higgins.

Right now development is right on track despite the recent run of bad weather.

“Currently we are about 75% done with the earthwork, about 75% complete with the sewer lines, water lines are starting to be installed probably in the next few weeks if the weather can cooperate with us, and then later on in the spring you’ll start to see 389 widen and you’ll really see the pavement all kind of come together really look like a true project,” said Saunders Ramsey.

Higgins tells us he expects the park to be ready to go by the end of the summer.

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