A Walmart Neighborhood Market may be coming to east Starkville after all.
Only two months after aldermen shot down Walmart’s request for $1.35 million in tax-increment financing from the city for access infrastructure at the grocery store’s proposed location at Highway 12 and Garrard Road next to the Parker-McGill car dealership, Carlson Consulting approached the board Tuesday to renew the plat for the property.
The original plat, approved in 2015, had expired and required re-approval.
The TIF, which failed by a 4-3 margin, would have allowed Walmart to use bonds backed by tax money to build a road and install signal lights at the property that would access Highway 12.
Before voting on renewing the plat, which passed unanimously, Ward 6 Alderman and Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins demanded the developer declare its intent to build the store without a TIF or “handout” from the city.
“I don’t want to waste time approving a preliminary plat and nothing happen,” said Perkins, amid a minutes-long, stem-winding rebuke of Walmart’s assertion in September that it would not build the market without a TIF for the road. “…We don’t have any handouts to be giving to Walmart. I don’t need a bunch of rhetorical speech. I don’t need to spend half the night listening to anything. I need to know their true intent.”
Johnny Moore, a Starkville attorney representing Carlson at Tuesday’s meeting, assured aldermen the TIF is no longer an issue.
“Our intentions are to move forward (with building) or we wouldn’t be here,” he told the board. “As for the TIF, as far as we’re concerned, that’s over with.”
Gouras and Associates, a consulting firm based in Madison, represented Walmart when the company sought the TIF. Carlson has since replaced the firm.
Project developers value the total commercial project at $14 million and expect it to generate 95 jobs with $2 million in total annual payroll.
Ward 2 Alderman Lisa Wynn, a proponent of the project who previously supported the TIF, said she is ready to see the market built and hopes it spurs future development on the east end of Highway 12.
“Walmart is not asking the city for one nickel tonight,” she said. “They’ve moved on and made adjustments (to the plan).”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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