Higgins gives industrial park update at Rotary
Golden Triangle LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins spoke to the Starkville Rotary Club Monday, giving an update on the LINKbacked industrial park project.
Higgins told the club the anticipated completion date was July 2019, and said in addition to heavy industry, some of the land will be zoned for shipping and receiving facilities. He also gave some updates on the current Supreme Court case the site is involved in and some archeological work going on at the site. The site is located north of Starkville along Highway 389.
“We will probably be ready to start, I'm going to say later this spring, letting bids on work for roads, water and sewer,” Higgins said. “We are going to probably within the next 60 days, or closer to 45, award a contract to build the pad for the 4 County substation, so work is taking place.”
Higgins also gave an update on the court case involving the park, saying signs pointed to a favorable outcome. He said the case would most likely be heard in the summer.
The case was filed in early summer 2017, and involved property owners on and near the site appealing an Oktibbeha County Circuit Court decision in favor of the park to the Mississippi Supreme Court.
“We're waiting on the Supreme Court to issue a ruling on whether or not it will be zoned appropriately for an industrial park,” Higgins said. “We expect that to happen this summer. So you all know, we figure this is Starkville and Oktibbeha County's best chance.”
Higgins said the LINK was “all in,” and described the purchase of the land with $14 million in bonds from the city and the county.
“We pushed all the chips to the middle of the table,” Higgins said. “You see, we can't wait on that ruling from the Supreme Court, so we bought that site.”
Higgins said even if the park lost its case, all wouldn't be lost. Changes in the city's comprehensive plan would still give the site a chance to be profitable.
“Once that's done, what we're wanting to do to that property is an acceptable use, “Higgins said. “If we lose in the Supreme Court, we win back because the city adopts the new comprehensive plan and propagates those rules, and we get the advantage of those.”
He said 80 acres of the site were already zoned C2, meaning although manufacturing could not go there, distribution centers could.
“We're out there marketing that 80 acres right now to a couple of companies to build distribution centers there,” Higgins said. “If we lose in the supreme court and the city doesn't do what they're supposed to do as far as getting everything done on the new comprehensive plan, if we can locate another company there, that will be a change in the neighborhood, and we will be allowed to go in for another re-zone of that.”
He said the cultural resources and archaeological work on the site was going better than planned. He could not give many details about the work as part of the agreement with the firm performing it, but put the need for it in context.
“Along this whole ridge, there was pretty active prehistoric activity and Native American Indian activity,” Higgins said. “I'll talk a little bit about Innovation Park. They told us that every 50 to 100 yards out across those rolling hills, there would have been a dwelling.”
Higgins also updated the SDN on two additional projects involving the LINK. He said “Project Polar,” a cold storage plant in West Point that will be the new site for poultry producer PECO, was going as planned. In addition, he confirmed another project, known as “Project Snoopy” was off the table.
“We're finalizing everything with them,” Higgins said of Project Polar. “I think we're good.”