The Golden Triangle Development LINK is close to finishing a process that could place an undisclosed amount of acreage larger than the abandoned Innovation District under option for a potential industrial park in Oktibbeha County.
Three parcels are currently under option, LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins and COO Joey Deason confirmed, while talks to secure a fourth are in progress.
Deason said getting those controlling the parcel — its executor and heirs — on the same page has slowed the process, but the LINK remains optimistic a deal could be brought to county supervisors and Starkville aldermen by the beginning of 2016.
The LINK declined to give specifics about the proposed site — where it’s located, who owns the parcels, exactly how large the site will be and its associated costs — due to ongoing negotiations.
Deason, however, said the land makes up a combined area larger than the proposed 326-acre Innovation District but smaller than the 500-acre site recommended by William Fruth, President of the Florida-based independent research firm POLICOM Corporation, in 2014.
“We’ve agreed upon a lot of the terms, but it’s a larger picture than just this parcel we’re looking at. We’re continuing to push and work through it, but at this point it’s out of our hands,” Deason said of the slow process surrounding negotiations. “It’s just a matter of getting heirs, the person overseeing the issues and the other entities together.”
The LINK previously secured city and county support for $10 million in combined bonds to develop the Innovation District, a proposed advanced manufacturing park near the Highways 182 and 25 bypass, but possible cultural artifacts at the site skyrocketed projected costs associated with preparing the park.
Officials walked away from the deal after securing options for the land, noting that clearing the site could delay the project by at least a year and a half.
The LINK is expected to approach both city and county boards and request a new bond intent notice once officials plot costs, Deason said.
Since the new site is larger than the Innovation District, a larger bond package could be needed to fund land acquisition and infrastructure installation.
“We’re not going to come in and be capped at a limit this time. We’re going to know our costs, bring them (to the boards) and say, ‘This is what it is. This is what it’ll take for Oktibbeha County to be successful.’ Is it $9 million? Is it $11 million? I think we’ll have that number very soon,” Deason said. “In a perfect world, we would have already (brought the project before city and county leaders).”
Having a shovel-ready site — dubbed “product” by the economic development firm — is the only way Oktibbeha County can become a viable contender in industrial recruitment, LINK officials say, as neighboring Clay and Lowndes counties’ high power and sewage capacity areas continue to land large megaprojects.
Cornerstone Park, Oktibbeha County’s only formal industrial area, is not yet seen as a viable option for industrial recruitment since its electrical capacity cannot handle advanced or heavy manufacturing.
A 4 County Electric Power Association project in the coming years, however, is expected to install a substation and increase the area’s capacity.
In April, Higgins attributed the LINK’s ability to land game-changing economic development projects in Lowndes County due to leaders’ continued investment in land.
In the past decade, he said the county has invested $65 million of its own tax revenue toward industrial enticement and infrastructure projects.
“We’ve been so successful because we bought it,” he said in April. “But you’ve got to have stuff. And the one thing you’ve got to have, the fundamental building block of all this is you have to have (infrastructure). Those who are not Lowndes County residents need to understand that the reason (Lowndes County) gets a lot of play on deals is that they’ve got a load of land. And it’s not just land. It’s land they own. It’s land they put water in and sewer in and roads in.”
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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