Greater Starkville Development Partnership officials hope to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the city to take over management of Fire Station No. 1’s greenspace and move Starkville Community Market to the Russell Street corridor’s terminus.
Officials say such a move would give SCM an assured home as its current location at the corner of Lampkin and Jackson streets is privately owned. Moving the ever-expanding market to the fire station park will also increase its capacity and allow the Partnership to further invest in its operation with grant funding.
The proposed MOU should find little resistance at the board table Tuesday. Ward 5 Alderman Scott Maynard called the proposal a win-win for the city, market and Partnership Sunday.
Under the agreement, the Partnership would take over oversight, maintenance and liability with the under-utilized public greenspace, said Jennifer Prather, the GSDP’s special events coordinator and market manager.
Fire officials have shown interest to assist in upkeep, Prather said, and businesses within the Russell Street corridor have written letters of support backing the move and offering nearby parking spaces for future patrons.
The city’s Tuesday e-packet includes letters from College Park Shopping Center Owner George Sherman, BankFirst Community Bank President Dennis Bock and Costume Party owners Kevin and Connie Willsey.
“(The move) will more than double our capacity for vendors. Not only are we improving our physical capacity, but the additional electricity availability means we can diversify our offerings with things like refrigerated options for dairy and meat,” she said. “We see this as the perfect opportunity. It’s a very beautiful-yet-under-utilized area in our city. We want to help fill a void there and hopefully drive more commerce to the area as it grows.”
In addition to nearby commercial lots, patrons can also utilize University Drive parking spots that lead to a new sidewalk connecting the heavily used thoroughfare and Lampkin Street, she said.
“It might even be a better situation (than the current location’s immediate access to a public parking lot),” Prather said.
Under the Partnership’s guidance, SCM almost doubled its amount of vendors and maintained about $4,000 in business each week last year, Prather said in late September.
SCM opened its first mid-week offering — a light produce market each Tuesday — as local demand increased.
It also received Mississippi Magazine’s Best Farmer’s Market designation last summer. The Partnership was also recognized in the same publication for its wayfinding signage.
Along with developers and city officials, the Partnership has placed increased focus on infrastructure improvements in the Russell Street corridor and the connecting Lampkin-Montgomery intersection.
Grant funding secured by the Partnership helped develop the sidewalk connecting University Drive and Lampkin Street and installed new pedestrian improvements at the intersection.
A major improvement project that will boost pedestrian and bike connectivity along Russell Street should begin next year, Northern Miss. Transportation Commissioner Mike Tagert told business leaders last month.
Workers will remodel the four-lane road to two lanes and add a center turning lane. In the extra space created from the lane reduction, bike paths and sidewalks will be added that connect to existing infrastructure near the fire station park and Lampkin-Montgomery intersection.
The project is estimated at $900,000, but only 20 percent of the total cost will come from a joint Starkville-Mississippi State University partnership. The remainder, Tagert said, is funded through a federal alternative transportation program.
“We think it’s a real game-changing project for that area,” he said last month.
Pedestrian infrastructure is needed as the corridor continues to develop. Two major projects — the Mill at MSU and Cotton Mill Marketplace — will add two hotels, numerous retail shops and a parking deck while also transforming the historic cotton mill into a major conference center.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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