Touting messages of progress and economic development, some of the state’s most influential people gathered Monday at East Mississippi Community College-Golden Triangle to mark what Joe Higgins called “the end of the beginning” of the Golden Triangle Regional Global Industrial Aerospace Park project.

Higgins, CEO of the Columbus-Lowndes Development Link, said the planned megasite could feature up to 8 million square feet in industrial space, create thousands of jobs and bring prosperity to workers in the Golden Triangle. The message sat well with the roughly 200 people in attendance, some of whom traveled from as far as Alabama and Jackson to see the presentation.

“It creates an awful lot of opportunity to change the face of Northeast Mississippi,” Greater Starkville Development Partnership President and CEO Jon Maynard said of the aerospace park. “It’s going to create the type of infrastructure that we need to see, utilizing the educational centers at Mississippi State University, (Mississippi University for Women) and EMCC, to really bring the type of work force that we’d like to have in our area.”

Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman shared a similar sentiment.

“We’re very excited,” Wiseman said. “This type of project is the type of project that’s basically a game-changer for this entire region, and certainly we expect the Starkville community to benefit greatly from everything that’s going on 12 miles from our front door.”

The site is located on 2,500 acres just west of Golden Triangle Regional Airport. The region already has an aerospace culture present, with Stark Aerospace, Aurora Flight Sciences and American Eurocopter, and Columbus Air Force Base nearby.

The Link and Greater Starkville Development Partnership have started marketing the megasite to bring in additional companies.

“We’ve already started bringing in site-selection consultants from around the world that represent clients,” Higgins said. “We brought some in for the Mississippi State game at home the last week or two. We’re bringing in more consultants for the Alabama game. This movie (describing the site, shown Monday at EMCC) will be expanded and taken to the London Air Show with the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Mississippi Development Authority and our partners that are here. Our delegates will be going there to sell it.”

“We’re going to devote a significant portion of our budget to promoting this,” Higgins added, including a $13,000 full-page advertisement in Site Selection magazine.

MSU President Mark Keenum is excited about the prospect of MSU students having more job opportunities after graduation.

“I just think the GTR Global Industrial Aerospace Park is going to be outstanding, as illustrated by the presence of some really remarkable companies that we have right here in this region of our state,” Keenum said. “What we have to bring, with our Bagley College of Engineering, our College of Business, we’re producing the kind of graduates that these companies that already exist here now are hiring. The prospect of us expanding this park, bringing more companies, more investors here, it’s going to create more job opportunities for Mississippi State graduates. I think it’s just a win-win for this whole area.”

“Also, our involvement, from our research, our high-performance computational capabilities, are going to be a part of helping us attract industry and business to locate here because of the resources that we have at Mississippi State University,” Keenum added. “We’re excited to be a part of this project, and we’re going to be committed to its future growth and development.”

Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors President John Young was glad to see five Mississippi counties and three Alabama counties come together in support of the project.

“I think this is an exciting time for Oktibbeha County and the surrounding communities,” Young said. “We’ve heard a lot about regionalization, and this is one of the parts of it and it’s a big step toward regionalization. I’m just proud Oktibbeha County can be a part of it.”

Part of the project includes extending Artesia Road through Oktibbeha County to Highway 25. And $17.5 million in grants and loans have been approved to bring infrastructure to the site.

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., called the site a “beautiful new industrial addition to our state,” and Rep. Travis Childers, D-Miss., spoke of how much the project will improve the region.

“There’s going to be thousands of jobs created here, and the families of North Mississippi and West Alabama will benefit for generations to come,” Childers said.