Restaurant, retail, housing space under construction downtown

Renovation efforts are underway at two 1950 buildings next to the Starkville Daily News office on Lampkin Street

The Jackson Square development will be located at the corner of Lampkin Street and Jackson Street. The north building will be divided into three retail condos, with the possibility of four stories of residential space being added later. The south building will be restaurant space, with half already spoken for by King’s Craft Butcher, an artisan butcher shop. A courtyard with a fire fountain will link the buildings. The courtyard will be oriented westward to emphasize sunsets.

Project cost is around $2.5 million, with costs expected to be closer to $10 million if the residential space is added.

“It’s going to add restaurant and retail space with parking on site downtown, as well as renovating two existing buildings,” Developer Johnny Arnold said. “The third (residential) phase will set the skyline for downtown.

The project is a joint venture between GM Realty Associates in Nyack, New York and TAG Investments. Project architects are Bill Mann and Ashley Bankston. The project group acquired the buildings in 2015, closed on both in November 2016 and began demolition work in February of this year.

Arnold said he hoped to finish the project as soon as possible, and that differences with the city over interpretation of building codes had caused some delays.