STARKVILLE – Aldermen on Tuesday cleared the way for two housing projects, including a five-story mixed-use development downtown and the city’s first cottage court community.
The first project, planned for the former site of the Starkville Community Market at 128 S. Jackson St., will see 24 residential units added to the downtown portfolio.
“I, for one, am very excited about this project because we’ve been wanting to have residential downtown for so long, and this is a piece of that that makes that happen so that we’ve got an active downtown all the time,” Mayor Lynn Spruill said of the project during the meeting.
Along with residential units, the building will include a ground-floor commercial space and a top floor featuring floor-to-ceiling windows and taller ceilings to create “a penthouse” feel to the floor, Developer Mark Castleberry told the board during the meeting.
Castleberry said the project has been in the works for roughly three years, with “dynamic construction costs” making it difficult to get off the ground. His hope with the development is to capitalize on activity along Highway 182 corridor following the completion of the city’s revitalization, a project Castelberry said he was skeptical of initially.
“I was just concerned, ‘Is 182 going to come together as quickly?’ And (with) the excitement and development that’s going to go on there, (I was) really pleasantly surprised,” he told the board. “I think there’s going to be a lot of good growth and development on 182, in addition to Main Street, and I think … we’ve been playing our part with this piece to bring people down there.”
Castleberry said he expects the development to be a “really neat one-two-punch” when combined with the plans for Barter Row, a project that which would develop property encompassing the existing Regions Bank building as well as four other nearby lots surrounding Reeds of Starkville into a mixed-use development with residential and commercial space.
To see the project to fruition, the board approved five exceptions to the Unified Development Code, including approving a fifth floor and a slightly larger building width.
“Staff finds the building incorporates sufficient architectural detail, pedestrian oriented design features, landscaping, screening and street scape improvements to satisfy the intent of the standards,” City Planner Daniel Havelin told the board.
Aldermen on Tuesday also approved a request from Developer Christopher McQueen to combine three existing lots near 509 S. Montgomery St. and remove three existing structures to build 14 cottage units organized around two shared courtyards.
The development, referred to as The Meadows at South Montgomery, will also include perimeter parking accessed by two one-way drives, landscaping and required buffers.
The development will be the first of its kind in Starkville, Havelin told the board.
“We’ve had a couple other instances where people were sort of interested in doing this, but this is the first one that’s gotten this far along,” he said.
Individual units are capped at 1,200 square feet, Havelin said, and the cottages would be structured as a condominium association, giving residents access to their own yards and shared common spaces.
Developer Christopher McQueen, of Greenwood, said the project is inspired by the Adelaide subdivision, but with more of a “gameday condo” feel. Speaking during the meeting Tuesday, he thanked the board for its openness to the new concept.
“I must say, I was a little intimidated,” McQueen said. “I’ve been told that the city could be difficult to deal with, but I’ve had a very positive experience.”
“I believe we jumped that hurdle a number of years ago,” Spruill replied. “… I think it’s really a lovely project. I’m very excited about having an offering that’s different.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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